20084. jexster - 8/21/2007 12:28:31 PM

Michelle Baits Billary

20085. jexster - 8/21/2007 12:37:45 PM

I didn't watch the Stephanopolous debate but Frank Luntz and his focus group did.

The Fox Noise Report tells the tale....

20086. concerned - 8/21/2007 12:46:19 PM

Gallup poll extends George W. Bush's approval rating to 78% over Worst Congress Ever

PRINCETON, NJ -- A new Gallup Poll finds Congress' approval rating the lowest it has been since Gallup first tracked public opinion of Congress with this measure in 1974. Just 18% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while 76% disapprove, according to the August 13-16, 2007, Gallup Poll.

That 18% job approval rating matches the low recorded in March 1992(what else? a Democrat Congress), when a check-bouncing scandal was one of several scandals besetting Congress, leading many states to pass term limits measures for U.S. representatives (which the Supreme Court later declared unconstitutional). Congress had a similarly low 19% approval rating during the energy crisis in the summer of 1979.(You guessed it, another Democrat Congress).



Worst...Congress...Ever!

20087. jexster - 8/21/2007 12:50:25 PM

Damn

You'd think the money would be POURING into RNCC coffers wouldn't you?

You'd think Republican congresspersons would be gearing up for campaigns and not running for the exits

If you thought that, think again



DCCC has a unprecendented 10:1 advantage



Maybe people think that there are still too many Republicans in Congreff!


THe 6 months/43 filibuster Congreff


Worst ever!!

20088. jexster - 8/21/2007 12:51:24 PM

Real Men Aren't Afraid of Hugo Chavez

20089. concerned - 8/21/2007 12:58:43 PM

Holy shit, jexster! Put your toys away!

20090. jexster - 8/21/2007 1:02:39 PM

As you can see I DID!

Now go max out your RNCC contributions. Put your money where your mouf is....


Nancy sends her love

20091. jexster - 8/21/2007 1:03:45 PM

Manliness: It's Next to Godliness

Obama said his biggest weakness in the general election would be the same as in the primary where Hillary Rodham Clinton is his chief opponent _ overcoming the perception that he hasn't been on the national stage long enough and isn't tough enough to win.

"Let me tell you, if I beat the Clintons, folks aren't going to ask whether I'm tough enough," Obama said to laughter from the crowd.

Obama said he has "no doubt that there will be attempts to dirty me up," but he is determined to respond quickly to attacks if he wins the nomination.

"I'm in a very strong position now," Obama said. "I will be in a very strong position after I win the nomination. I mean, let's face it, if I win the nomination, it's pretty big news."

20092. concerned - 8/21/2007 1:07:19 PM

What's your problem, jexter? You going blind?

20093. jexster - 8/21/2007 1:12:31 PM

My thing bigger than your thing TD - ManCode 4.34.1

20094. thoughtful - 8/21/2007 1:20:28 PM

I only glanced at KO last night as KO wasn't on, but there was a brief reference to something having come out that rove etal pushed for kerry because they thought he'd be the easiest to beat....

20095. jexster - 8/21/2007 1:40:04 PM

"kerry" a freudian slip!!


This isn't from Olbermann but it puts the matter:

Aug 20, 2007 -- 03:29 PM EST
From: Coffee House
Karl Rove Quickie

By Andrew Golis | bio

I don't think it requires projecting some sort of meta-malevolent brilliance onto Rove to believe that his attacks on Hillary are intended to help her in the primary. Of course that's the goal. To think otherwise is to believe that Rove is dumb enough to not know that his attacks on her help her to brandish her selling point to the base as the experienced partisan fighter. Whether or not he's super-smart, he's not that dumb.

20096. concerned - 8/21/2007 2:15:57 PM

Worst...Congress...Ever!!!

20097. concerned - 8/21/2007 2:18:00 PM

Now all we need is a Congressional Scandal and the 'Rat Congress approval rating will go from Peloser's IQ to her shoe size.

20098. jexster - 8/21/2007 2:35:49 PM

Trouble is all you guyz are getting is MORE GOP scandals....Donald Young (R-AK)

20099. jexster - 8/21/2007 2:41:43 PM

America's ready to clean out Bushville DC


And that includes the War Party's Foreign Policy Courtiers

There is one thing you must never do if you want to be considered a Serious Foreign Policy Thinker in Washington: Don't stop to consider the lessons of history before proposing massive redesigns to another part of the world. Michael O'Hanlon and other Iraq war backers were wildly incorrect in their last set of predictions, but that hasn't stopped them from promoting still more grand schemes. Now O'Hanlon wants to partition Iraq.


Serious Thought: Experience in Bushville



When the history of this war is written, when it is revised and rewritten, one theme will remain constant - at no time has the Washington policy debate had much to do with what was actually going on in Iraq.

At one time, that debate certainly affected the lives of Iraqis. Now it is, in the main, as irrelevant as it is fanciful

20100. thoughtful - 8/21/2007 2:51:14 PM

If you haven't read it, you should. It's one of the best pieces I've seen on iraq, told by soldiers who've seen it up close and personal. While reading it, I couldn't help but think of lawrence of arabia. If only someone, someone in the neocon world had seen the flick before they entered iraq!

Political reconciliation in Iraq will occur, but not at our insistence or in ways that meet our benchmarks. It will happen on Iraqi terms when the reality on the battlefield is congruent with that in the political sphere. There will be no magnanimous solutions that please every party the way we expect, and there will be winners and losers. The choice we have left is to decide which side we will take. Trying to please every party in the conflict — as we do now — will only ensure we are hated by all in the long run.

At the same time, the most important front in the counterinsurgency, improving basic social and economic conditions, is the one on which we have failed most miserably. Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricity, telephone services and sanitation. “Lucky” Iraqis live in gated communities barricaded with concrete blast walls that provide them with a sense of communal claustrophobia rather than any sense of security we would consider normal.

In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages. As an Iraqi man told us a few days ago with deep resignation, “We need security, not free food.”

In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal.

20101. judithathome - 8/21/2007 3:01:36 PM

Hey, we need serious help on this thread...it is way outta whack!

20102. concerned - 8/21/2007 3:11:58 PM

jexster just doesn't clean up his toys because he thinks he can distract from my posting on the Democrat Congress. Well, he's got another think coming. When 20 posts have passed, then, blammo, up it goes again:)

20103. jexster - 8/21/2007 3:51:23 PM

There's a reason TD posts large...

There's a reason the DCCC has raised a phenomenal TEN TIMES (that's 1000% TD) more than their GOP counterparts.


And it's the WORST CONGREFF EVER!

Ted Stevens (R-AK) Makes His Friends Look Bad

You want Congressional scandal TD? Be careful what you ask for.

More indictments of GOP congreffoids coming

20104. jexster - 8/21/2007 3:53:44 PM

20100


Fighting an insurgency is like eating soup with a fork
TE Lawrence

20105. thoughtful - 8/21/2007 8:29:57 PM

20106. thoughtful - 8/21/2007 8:30:39 PM

Did that help? my machine at work didn't reveal the screwed up fonts, but my machine at home shows giant red! Jex! Pick up your toys!

20107. thoughtful - 8/21/2007 8:30:57 PM

Ah,finally

20108. concerned - 8/21/2007 10:37:50 PM

Worst...Congress...Ever!!!

20109. robertjayb - 8/21/2007 10:37:57 PM

Well done. Thanks.

20110. concerned - 8/21/2007 10:38:41 PM

You're very welcome.

20111. concerned - 8/21/2007 10:51:37 PM

Clinton faces gender gap as she stumps in Iowa

20112. concerned - 8/21/2007 10:57:59 PM

Unlike jexster, I can control my fonts.

20113. jexster - 8/21/2007 10:58:40 PM

Just think. If that woman had learned how to put a health care plan together and/or learnt the art of baking cookies/bjs or hells bells even making biscuits and wallpaper paste..er gravy for Bill, we wouldn't have to deal with her Brunhilde actin

20114. jexster - 8/21/2007 11:01:35 PM

Hello! I don't know what you all have been snortin but I haven't a toys problem all day.



Why should I? The Senatorial campaign committees have reported in and it's bad news indeed for Harry Reid


He only has a 3:1 cash advantage over the Republicans

Worst Congreff ever?

At this rate, it can't get much worser for the GOP

20115. concerned - 8/21/2007 11:10:15 PM

Hate to break it to ya, jexster, but both houses of Congress are controlled by Democrats. The 18% approval rating is all theirs.

20116. concerned - 8/21/2007 11:12:19 PM

That 'Rat drop to 18%, besides being an absolute historic minimum, must have set a record for quickest voters remorse in history.

20117. concerned - 8/21/2007 11:14:09 PM

jexster - aren't you going to thank thoughtful for cleaning up your toys, you ingrate?

20118. jexster - 8/21/2007 11:28:40 PM

Thoughtful's high...didn't clean up a dang thang..

And YOU

Aider and abettor of treason..yes TREASON


Wednesday's Iraq papers discuss Who will inherit Southern Provincese of Iraq - the ones with all that oil and the only exit for the US other than helicopter skids

Will it be My MAIN MAN
Muqtada or

Bush's Best Friend, the Iranian puppet al-Hakim?


Real Americans support Muqtada!

20119. concerned - 8/21/2007 11:41:00 PM

You mean your pet pig Porky?

20120. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/22/2007 12:27:19 AM

20121. jexster - 8/22/2007 9:25:23 AM

As American military officers gain rank, they soon learn that the absolute worst political sin is "committing truth." Any time they say something that contradicts what is coming out of the White House or the office of the secretary of defense, they find themselves in very hot water. If they persist in the annoying practice, they discover they do not quality for senior commands.

If Gen. Petraeus is to present a genuine military report in September and not a "cooked" political document, he will have to buck the system. It should be fairly easy to judge whether he has done that or not, because if he has, the White House will howl. The gap between the reality in Iraq and the administration's rhetoric is so wide that it should show dramatically in any genuine military analysis. If it does not, and if the White House regards his report complacently, with just a few quibbles as part of the kabuki, then it amounts to nothing more than one of Napoleon's bulletins – from which we got the phrase, "to lie like a bulletin."

Come September, we will find out what Gen. Petraeus is made of. Depending on that, we may also find out something about the war in Iraq.

PetRaeus Report: More Kabuki - William Lind

20122. thoughtful - 8/22/2007 9:26:59 AM

So which candidate is your candidate? Can you tell by the statements they've made? If you want to learn more about where the candidates stand...or at least say they stand...on the issues and how that meshes with your point of view, check out myelectionchoices.com. You are given a list of statements made by the various candidates without identification, select the ones you agree with, then view the results. It can be surprising.

Just for fun, I did separation of church and state and found I was in most agreement with dodd and huckabee!

20123. jexster - 8/22/2007 11:51:45 AM

Iraq, Health Care
Dodd
Clinton
Obama

20124. jexster - 8/22/2007 12:06:01 PM

Add foreign policy and Richardson replaces Dodd

20125. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/22/2007 1:44:23 PM

20126. thoughtful - 8/22/2007 2:26:16 PM

Hah! I did trade and came out strongly with mccain and romney!

20127. thoughtful - 8/22/2007 2:36:40 PM

On education I agreed with mccain and obama...what the heck is going on???

20128. jexster - 8/22/2007 2:47:43 PM

You've got a short-circuit T'fill

Now PAY ATTENTION..

Here's the day's history lesson from the Decider:

20129. jexster - 8/22/2007 2:50:37 PM

5 wars..five losses
Didn't have much to begin with, lost what little mind he had

US Losing War on Terror
Foreign Policy "Terrorism Index"

20130. jexster - 8/22/2007 3:24:59 PM

Bush Lies About AQI Captures in IraQ


Noooo...Say it ain't so

20131. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/22/2007 4:30:34 PM

20132. thoughtful - 8/22/2007 4:52:13 PM

Very interesting stuff in froomkin...I'm finally catching up on a few of them. So there's this whole thing about rove in 04 purposely trashing kerry to keep his name afloat, knowing the more they trashed him, the more the dems would support him, thinking he's easier to beat than edwards.

So since he 'left' the white house, he's been on 3 talk shows where he refuses to talk about obama, but is more than willing to trash hillary. Same tactic? Especially after this:

On Face the Nation, CBS's Bob Schieffer asked an innocuous opening question and got a tantalizing response.

SCHIEFFER: "[Y]ou haven't been on any of the shows in a long, long time. Why did you decide suddenly to come out?

"Mr. ROVE: Well, somebody else made the decision for me, and I'm just doing what I was instructed to do."

Really? Who instructed him? And was he instructed to trash Clinton?

Yeah, right he's going to spend more time with his family!

20133. thoughtful - 8/22/2007 4:54:57 PM

And then there's this gem:

Bill Moyers writes on his PBS Web site: "Karl Rove figured out a long time ago that the way to take an intellectually incurious, draft-averse, naughty playboy in a flight jacket with chewing tobacco in his back pocket and make him governor of Texas, was to sell him as God's anointed in a state where preachers and televangelists outnumber even oil derricks and jack rabbits."

20134. jexster - 8/22/2007 4:58:16 PM

Cultural Learnings

I will forgive Pamela, and I will go to California, with my friend Mr. Jesus, and we will take her!

20131

20135. jexster - 8/22/2007 8:00:57 PM

Worst Congress Ever

Hastert is leaving November 6








2007

according to Bob Novak

20136. jexster - 8/22/2007 9:06:28 PM

Carl Levin is an idiot and a marmot

20137. jexster - 8/22/2007 9:30:13 PM

Hillary Clinton and the Imbecile Levin have called on Iraqis to replace Maliki. Hillary Clinton at her disingenuous, best is dire need of a do-over. Too bad there aren't any in politics


From the NewsHour Panel tonight:

GEORGE PACKER, The New Yorker: the government is, as one official said to me, not dysfunctional, it's nonfunctioning. It is practically collapsed.

"We're not hearing the whole story"

RAY SUAREZ: Well, Laith Kubba, are we now hearing in public things that were already being said in private for weeks, maybe months?

LAITH KUBBA, Former Iraqi Government Spokesman: I think we're not hearing the whole story. I think the frustration with Maliki and his government is real, and it's understandable, and Iraqis have been frustrated for awhile.

I think what we're not hearing is that the problem is not with the person. If you replace Maliki with any other person, those problems will not go. They're more rooted in a dysfunctional political system that needs serious attention.

20138. jexster - 8/23/2007 12:21:31 PM

Iowa Republicans Want Out of Iraq - In Six Months!


Maybe that's why Hastert's in such a godawful hurry to bail

20139. jexster - 8/23/2007 12:40:16 PM

O on the Daily Show

20140. jexster - 8/23/2007 12:58:50 PM

Asked if he admired any of the Republican candidates, Obama offered faint praise: "Yeah, I think some of these folks are decent people."

Obama cited only former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee by name.


For me it was HEART at first sight!!!!

20141. jexster - 8/23/2007 1:10:10 PM

RoveBush's Massive Conspiracy to Violate the Hatch Act


Waxman has a superabundance of "controlling legal authority"

20142. jexster - 8/23/2007 1:51:43 PM

The "Coventional Wisdom' of ClintonBushVille


Hard to conceive a more self-canceling phrase

20143. jexster - 8/23/2007 3:28:58 PM

You introduce new products in August


That's what Andy Card says anyway and apparently Obama agrees.

Sunday's debate he "triple downed" according to Time and wiped out Frank Luntz's debate focus group Last night the Daily Show, today an exclusive interview and education speech coverage in Dillon SC on CNN

CNN's tease - Obama without warmup, hitting a 3 nothing but net in a 100 degree Dillon school gym

20144. jexster - 8/23/2007 3:51:40 PM

Bad News for Bushville: Worst Congress Ever

Bush Pew Aug 23 Approve 31%, Disapprove 59%
Congress Pew Aug 23 Approve 21%, Disapprove 65%

20145. jexster - 8/23/2007 8:29:37 PM

Grand Ole Pigpile -

End of an Era
Financial Times

20146. jexster - 8/24/2007 11:00:47 AM

First John Warner NOW


Peter Pan Pace to Call for Cut and Run 50% Troop Reduction

20147. jexster - 8/24/2007 6:40:22 PM

Steve Clemons, New America Foundation:

Hillary Clinton -- regrettably, as I do recognize her many strengths -- is staying in the past.

That is why Brzezinski has called for Obama. Hillary Clinton could still be our next President, but she should not get defensive about Brzezinski's statement -- and instead, should dig a bit here and ask herself why her advisors are pushing her into anachronistic, 20th century grooves -- and not ones aimed at a clear-headed and consistent 21st century vision for the country.

20148. jexster - 8/24/2007 7:05:58 PM

Obama's moving out boys and girls. Win or lose, it will be remembered that the Demo campaign for president began with Obama's Iowa debate appearance


The Pragmatic Obama
He's Shaping the Debate on Foreign Policy

By David Ignatius, WaPo

20149. jexster - 8/24/2007 7:15:52 PM

Brzezinski Embraces Obama Over Clinton for President (Bloomberg Update3)

20150. Max Macks - 8/25/2007 3:38:35 PM

Brzezinski, a harsh critic of the Bush administration's war in Iraq, slammed President George W. Bush for claiming progress is being made in Iraq and for asserting in an Aug. 22 speech that an early pullout would lead to the kind of bloodshed Southeast Asia experienced after American forces left Vietnam. "

Zbig Brzezinsiki, has been my all time favorite
person for years even tho I cannot spell his
name from memory

20151. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/25/2007 3:44:09 PM

I agree Max, a man of integrity and intellect and how America needs his skills and insight now.

20152. jexster - 8/26/2007 10:21:06 AM

100% righteous charge
Maliki's not going to be Hillary or Levin's do-over


We fucked that country up not Maliki

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki lashed out on Sunday at U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton who had called for him to be replaced.


In a sign of increased tension between him and Washington, Maliki also criticized the U.S. military for killing civilians.

"There are American officials who consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages, for example Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin," Maliki told a news conference.



NyT - Hillary's Manufactured Experience Issue

Unless being first lady counts as a foreign policy credential, Mrs. Clinton does not have that much on her resume.

“There is this osmosis working for her, that she is seen as an extension of the first Clinton presidency,” Mr. Smith said. “In lieu of more traditional experience, she benefits as being seen as the third Clinton term. There is an aura of competence about her.”

Will any of this matter when the next president takes office? “Look at what’s happened with Cheney and Rumsfeld,” Mr. Dallek said, citing the well-credentialed vice president and former defense secretary whom historians blame for leading the charge into Iraq. “That’s why I’m sympathetic to Obama. Does experience count? What really counts is judgment and what kind of judgment you have.”

20153. jexster - 8/26/2007 10:36:54 AM

Regular Americans not just Republicans like Tom Delay and Ahnold should be able to enjoy a Cohiba from time to time.

Florida Cubans can kiss my ass USA USA USA

LAT: Obama Scores on Cuba Policy Change

20154. arkymalarky - 8/26/2007 10:52:24 AM

more on Republicans wanting Hillary to be the Dem nominee

20155. jexster - 8/26/2007 11:19:07 AM

Did you see the Salon Article???? In a poll of Iowa REPUBLICANS, asked who they preferred as a nominee, Obama beat Huckabee

Any wonder Republicans want Hillary?


No Do-Overs - Ten More Years

the real test came over a lunch with Gen. David H. Petraeus, who used charts and a laser pointer to show how security conditions were gradually improving -- evidence, he argued, that the troop increase is doing some good.

Still, the U.S. commander cautioned, it could take another decade before real stability is at hand. Schakowsky gasped. "I come from an environment where people talk nine to 10 months," she said, referring to the time frame for withdrawal that many Democrats are advocating. "And there he was, talking nine to 10 years."

20156. jexster - 8/26/2007 5:19:48 PM

Up for re-election is he?

* Warner may back Dems' bill on withdrawal

20157. jexster - 8/26/2007 6:55:22 PM

Into the Belly of the Beast
Elian is Free at Last




While Shillary hugs the Bush line for dear life...the colored boy gets down


MIAMI (AFP) - US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Saturday promised a more open policy towards Cuba at a packed campaign rally in Miami, the heart of the anti-Castro Cuban exile community.


"Just 90 miles from here there is a country where justice and freedom are out of reach," Obama told the cheering crowd packed into a city auditorium.

"That's why my policy toward Cuba will be guided by one word: Liberty."

Obama heartily criticized US President George W. Bush, who restricted travel to Cuba and money remittances to the island in 2004 with the goal of toppling the communist regime of President Fidel Castro.

`Obama is clearly more effective and has the upper hand, He has a sense of what is historically relevant, and what is needed from the United States in relationship to the world.Being a former first lady doesn't prepare you to be president,'

Zbig

20158. jexster - 8/26/2007 10:08:56 PM

Arky...

You may have seen this months ago. NyT Magazine bit on David Axelrod who is Obama's political director - his Narrator

I was re-reading in light of what I've seen of the organizing at the grassroots level and it is amazing. What the NYT reported last April is beginning to happen on the streets.....
This is exactly what Camp Obama was about - Narratives. How to tell your story...Story of You, Story of US (your campaign team) and Story of Now - Your Campaign Team's action objectives


Key Grafs:

There are a variety of problems of political communication that the industry’s operatives spend their time obsessing over. One, which obsessed James Carville, is persuasion: How do you persuade people who believe one thing to believe another? A second, the big one for Joe Trippi, is commitment: What motivates your party’s loyalists to go to the polls in larger numbers? But Axelrod has become animated by a more basic challenge of political communication, the problem of breaking through, of sounding different and new. Axelrod says that the way to cut through all the noise is to see campaigns as an author might, to understand that you need not just ideas but also a credible and authentic character, a distinct politics rooted in personality. (“David breaks them down,” Peter Giangreco, a Chicago direct-mail consultant who often works with Axelrod, told me. “Who is your mother? Who is your father? Why are you doing this?”) This, Axelrod says, is what Karl Rove understood about George W. Bush. “One of the reasons Bush has succeeded in two elections,” Axelrod says, “is that in his own rough-hewn way he has conveyed a sense of this is who I am, warts and all.” For Obama, because of Senator Hillary Clinton’s far-greater experience and establishment backing, this is a particularly essential project. “If we run a conventional campaign and look like a conventional candidacy, we lose,” Axelrod says.

... “So many consultants are fighting the last war, but David is fighting the next one, and that makes him very, very dangerous,” the Republican consultant Mike Murphy told me.

After the consecutive presidential losses of Al Gore and John Kerry, patrician candidates who ran ill-fitting “people versus the powerful” campaigns designed for them by the consultant Bob Shrum, many Democrats began to suspect that part of what was wrong with the party was its formulaic consultants. The party has suffered, Axelrod says, from a “Wizard of Oz syndrome among Washington political consultants who tend to come to candidates and say: I have the stone tablets! You do what I say, and you will get elected. And they fit their candidates into their rubric.”

Axelrod’s is a less grand, postideological approach, and his campaigns are rooted less in issues than in the particulars of his candidate’s life. For him, running campaigns hitched to personality rather than ideology is a way of reclaiming fleeting authenticity. It is also, more and more, the way of the Democratic Party. Its 2006 Congressional campaign strategy — run by Axelrod’s close friend Emanuel, with the Chicago consultant acting as principal sounding board — did not depend on any great idea of where the party ought to go, like the last political cataclysm, Newt Gingrich’s 1994 House “revolution.” As they have reclaimed power, the Democrats have done so not by moving appreciably to the left or the right; rather, they have done so by allowing their candidates to move in both directions at once. “What David is basically doing — and this is somewhat new for Democrats — isn’t trying to figure out how to sell policies,” says the Democratic media consultant Saul Shorr. “It’s a matter of personality. How do we sell leadership?”

20159. robertjayb - 8/27/2007 8:52:14 AM

Adios Speedy...

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, under fire from congressional Democrats, has resigned, senior Bush administration officials said Monday.

20160. wonkers2 - 8/27/2007 9:01:25 AM

Speedy

20161. jexster - 8/27/2007 11:03:42 AM

20162. jexster - 8/27/2007 11:18:50 AM

Oya Senor we are federales...

20163. jexster - 8/27/2007 11:55:02 AM

I too think it a shame and a travesty that such a fine frijole couldn't jump on the business of his department because he was being bumper dragged through the mud for political reasons

20164. thoughtful - 8/27/2007 12:37:07 PM

so gonzales resigns.

Why'd it take so long?

Took him awhile to remember he WAS att. gen.!

20165. jexster - 8/27/2007 1:08:12 PM

Beltway Bumper Drag Through the Mud

20166. Max Macks - 8/27/2007 1:19:58 PM

so the last of that gang is gone except the
worst one of all Prick Cheney.

Rumsfeld, Wolfrowitz, and Rove(he was surprise
I assumed ht would never leave ) , and now finally
Gonzales,

If I thought that Bush had any thoughts except for himself I would wonder how he feels now.

20167. jexster - 8/27/2007 1:20:55 PM

Fredo, Harriet, Karl, Dumbsfeld

So much for the famous Bush Loyalty!!! All thrown under the bus. Another lie bites the dust


The House should open impeachment proceedings against Cheney

Be gone by Crimmus

20168. jexster - 8/27/2007 3:27:39 PM

Hillary's the one for the Grand Old Pigpile...this on MSNBC from the Midwest GOP Conference now going on...she's the hot topic...

She makes em cream their designer jeans

They're making novenas to St. Jude for Revenge of Brunhilde: Comeback Kid III & The Democratic Death Wish

20169. robertjayb - 8/27/2007 3:35:10 PM

Louisiana Treasurer Switches To GOP — May Run For Senate...(TPM election central)

John Kennedy? OhMiGod!

In a move that could throw a shadow over growing Dem optimism about making gains in the Senate in 2008, Louisiana Treasurer John N. Kennedy announced today that he is switching from the Democrats over to the Republican Party — a change widely seen as being a preliminary move towards challenging Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu.
.................................................

Louisiana is one of the few states in the country currently trending Republican. After the election of Senator David Vitter (R) to succeed retiring conservative Democrat John Breaux in 2004, the state's Democratic base was further damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which caused many black voters to move elsewhere. If Kennedy follows up on his party switch with a run for Senate — which Karl Rove had been courting him to do — expect it to be a very tough race for the Dems.

Get this squared away, will you, jexster?

How's your man Obama polling in LA?

20170. jexster - 8/27/2007 4:12:48 PM

I am not high enuf up the food chain for polling..Hell I can even get them to get off their asses and send my data coordinator the keys to the kingdom - the Voter Action Network


Having sufficient problems at my pay grade

I don't think the Kennedy thing matters ...just shows how hard up the GOP is in finding an opponent for Landrieu


SC, GA, LA, MS, AL, TX - the Alamo of the Grand Old Pigpile

20171. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/27/2007 5:48:09 PM

20172. jexster - 8/27/2007 7:47:41 PM

We weren't there but they were


National Geographic Channel
On Tonight: "Road to War: Iraq"


I know she trusted Bush
Make a great president someday. Just needs a little seasoning



Throw that fish back in the water...haul her out in 8 years

20173. jexster - 8/27/2007 8:21:15 PM

Randy Republicans!


Sen Larry Craig Cops a Plea
Idaho Republican Caught Cruising Bathroom, Minneapolis Airport

20174. jexster - 8/27/2007 8:32:58 PM

Craig Called Bill a "Naughty Boy"

I bet concerned gets laid all the time


Think I'll switch parties...help out the ole love life...get some Viagra..head for some TRoom

20175. jexster - 8/27/2007 8:35:19 PM

Best Legal Defense of 2007

A reader pointed me to this portion of the Roll Call report on the arrest of Sen. Larry "Wide Stance" Craig (R-ID), as recounted by the arresting officer:

In a recorded interview after his arrest, Craig “either disagreed with me or ‘didn’t recall’ the events as they happened,” the report states.

Craig stated “that he has a wide stance when going to the bathroom and that his foot may have touched mine,” the report states. Craig also told the arresting officer that he reached down with his right hand to pick up a piece of paper that was on the floor.

20176. jexster - 8/27/2007 10:07:13 PM

Plenty of people claim to run "grassroots" campaigns, but very few have a candidate and a campaign strategy that actually live up to the term. Barack Obama is different....


What a "Grassroots Campaign" Really Is


Kudos to Arky

She had this guy pegged from Day 1

20177. jexster - 8/28/2007 6:39:29 AM

What it took Hillary FOUR YEARS to discover, most of us around here knew at the time and still he goes on

At least Brunhilde doesnt' believe him any more. That's experience!


Bush's Reasons for War Keep Changing

20178. jexster - 8/28/2007 7:03:53 AM

In his two and a half years in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama has been active -- even hyperactive -- on matters of energy and the environment. The Democrat from Illinois has introduced or cosponsored nearly 100 eco-related bills on issues ranging from lead poisoning and mercury emissions to auto fuel economy and biofuels promotion. Along the way, he has racked up a notable 96 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters.

Salon.com Examines Obama's Green Cred

20179. jexster - 8/28/2007 3:13:21 PM

Grand Old Pigpile 1
A Ride Up the Hershey Highway


More Republican Hypocrisy
Larry Craig's bathroom behavior and the right wing -- then and now

Now they're calling for castration


The reaction to the Larry Craig story provides one of the most vivid illustrations yet of how the right-wing movement works. Last October, just weeks before the midterm election, gay activist Mike Rogers reported that the married, GOP "family values" Senator repeatedly had sex with anonymous men in public bathrooms. His report was based on "extensive research," including interviews with several men whom Craig solicited for bathroom sex. ...

it is hard to overstate the intense fury that this pre-election report triggered from the Right -- not at Senator Craig for engaging in this behavior, but at Rogers for reporting it. A virtually unanimous chorus on the Right furiously insisted that nothing could be more irrelevant than whether the married family values Senator had sex with men in bathrooms (acts that are simultaneously criminal and adulterous). The same political movement that impeached Bill Clinton and which has made a living exploiting issues of private morality for political gain insisted that Rogers had reached a new and despicable low in politics even by reporting this.

20180. jexster - 8/28/2007 4:32:32 PM

Let the Witch Hunt Begin!


Concerned, you a peter pumper?

Senate Grand Old Pigpile "leadership" calls for ethics investigation

D.I.: Where the hell're you from anyway, Private?"

Pvt. Cowboy: "Sir! Texas, Sir!"

D.I.: "Holy Dogshit! Texas! Only steers and queers come from Texas, Private Cowboy! And you don't look much like a steer to me, so that kinda narrows it down. Do you suck dicks?"


Pvt. Cowboy: "Sir! No, Sir!" D.I.: "Are you a peter-pumper?"

Pvt. Cowboy: "Sir! No, Sir!" D.I.: "I'll bet your the kind of guy that would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reach-around. I'll be watching you!"

20181. jexster - 8/28/2007 5:07:16 PM

The Angel Moroni Weighs In...

Smit the Shameless, just stuck a temple thong in Sen Wide Stance's mouth and threw him under the bus

"We remember Bill Clinton....It strikes me that we have yet another instance of a public official falling short of the standards of personal conduct we have the right to expect"

Romney's Idaho campaign manager fer crissakes

First Fredo, now Larry

20182. robertjayb - 8/28/2007 5:09:12 PM

Craig: I am not gay. I have never been gay.

Takes full responsibility for a lapse in judgement.

Hoo-Hah!

20183. thoughtful - 8/28/2007 5:21:26 PM

How'd you like his line that he wasn't tapping the foot of the cop in the next booth...he just has a 'wide stance'.

Uh huh.

He wasn't sticking his hand out at the cop in the next booth...he was reaching for a piece of paper that dropped on the floor.

Uh huh.

There should be a penalty for lying, and an extra penalty for treating us like fools by stretching credulity beyond the breaking point.

Cactus is a regular at the angry bear blog and has claimed Cactus' first law as follows:

"those who talk a lot about ethics, morality, or patriotism generally have none."

20184. concerned - 8/28/2007 5:32:00 PM

I can hear it now from the LW peanut gallery about Gonzales' resignation.

Chortle chortle chortle. Sneer sneer sneer.

Yuk it up while you can, Lefties.

20185. robertjayb - 8/28/2007 5:32:44 PM

The Idaho Statesman is all over the Larry Craig story.

In his press statement Craig claimed the paper has been hounding him.

Damn liberal media.

20186. jexster - 8/28/2007 5:33:55 PM

"I Don't Suck D/ck


The Ace of Spades does"

20187. jexster - 8/28/2007 5:35:07 PM

20184

I bet Fredo takes cats up the ass just like you

20188. jexster - 8/28/2007 5:38:04 PM

By my count, Craig has blamed:

1. the democratic party
2. liberals
3. the worldwide gay conspiracy
4. The Idaho Statesman newspaper
5. The Minneapolis Airport Pohlees



You a PeterPumper too TD?


BTW, Pelosi's going to launch impeachment proceedings against DickWad Cheney on Tues.

If the past is prologue, should be gone by Saturday

20189. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/28/2007 6:35:33 PM

20190. jexster - 8/28/2007 6:46:54 PM

Knew you'd cum thru Wizzer

20191. jexster - 8/28/2007 7:21:02 PM

TD..

From "I am not a crook" to

"I am not a fag"

Not sure if the Pigpile's making progress or no

20192. jexster - 8/28/2007 8:22:41 PM

In all the kerfuffle about Sen Wide Stance's preversions, George W. Bush warned the American Legion that if we leave IraQ, we should expect mushroom clouds from IraN

20193. robertjayb - 8/28/2007 9:45:58 PM

One in ten unarmed. We need more guns.

GENEVA — There are nine guns for every 10 people in the United States, with about 270 million firearms in circulation, according to a report released today.

Worldwide, civilians now have access to 650 million small arms — from handguns to semiautomatic rifles — an arsenal that far outstrips what is held by police and militaries, according to the annual Small Arms Survey. It estimates that civilians account for about three-fourths of the 875 million such weapons in circulation.

"Civilian holdings of weapons worldwide are much larger than we previously believed," the director of the Geneva-based group, Keith Krause, told reporters.

Another quaint notion out of Geneva...

20194. jexster - 8/28/2007 10:11:28 PM

So you say.
How in the hell do you expect us to convince the IslamoFascists that we don't fight like Tejas girlie men if only the IslamoFascists have guns!


I insist on my constitutional rights, thank you very much. You want to outlaw guns - go to Mexico and that wasteland of state with you

20196. robertjayb - 8/28/2007 10:52:06 PM

Cousin Gail sends a funny:

HOW TO START EACH DAY WITH A POSITIVE OUTLOOK

>> 1. Open a new file in your computer.
>> 2. Name it " George W. Bush "
>> 3. Send it to the trash.
>> 4. Empty the trash.
>> 5. Your PC will ask you,
>> "Do you really want to get rid of
>> " George W. Bush?"
>> 6. Firmly Click "Yes."
>> 7. Feel better?
>>
>> Tomorrow we'll do Dick Cheney...

20197. jexster - 8/28/2007 11:15:17 PM

Tell ya if Pelosi opens impeachment proceedings by 9/7, Bush will dump him by the end of the month.

And if TD thinks Ole Dickwad will find any help on Capitol Hill - fuggit about it.

So sorry to report the Demo scandals you were praying to Allah for...no can do

Scandal Scarred, Grand Old Pigpile Wonders 'What next'

Party Platform Committee Considers 'I am not gay' for 2008 Slogan

20198. jexster - 8/29/2007 10:35:04 AM

Cole in Salon: The War on al-Maliki

My Salon column for Wednesday is now available: "The war against Iraq's prime minister:"

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin are calling for Nouri al-Maliki's ouster as a way of attacking Bush's Iraq policy. But do they understand the consequences?

Obviously Sen Clinton has incredibly poor judgment and overweening ignorance of the basic facts on the ground in the stateless region of Mesopotamia for the war she supported has destroyed civil society and the very nation of Iraq itself, which exists now in name only, a place on a map

No man, and no woman, not even Sen Clinton, could lead that ruin.


Maybe Sen Rod Ham just needs a little more seasoning. Throw the fish back in the water, catch her again in 8 years

20199. jexster - 8/29/2007 10:54:37 AM

"Upon being asked about his resignation by a reporter, Gonzales stated he did not recall resigning, then proceeded back to his office where he couldn't remember what he was supposed to do there."

20200. concerned - 8/29/2007 10:57:39 AM

Re. 20189-91 -

He should change parties. Then he'd be an elite 'Rat instead of a scummy Pub.

20201. jexster - 8/29/2007 11:07:32 AM

Israel told Bush to Attack IraN not IraQ


Bush just got confused

or did he?


TREASON by any other name

sraeli officials warned the George W. Bush administration that an invasion of Iraq would be destabilizing to the region and urged the United States to instead target Iran as the primary enemy, according to former administration official Lawrence Wilkerson.

Wilkerson, then a member of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff and later chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, recalled in an interview with IPS that the Israelis reacted immediately to indications that the Bush administration was thinking of war against Iraq. After the Israeli government picked up the first signs of that intention, Wilkerson says, "The Israelis were telling us Iraq is not the enemy – Iran is the enemy."

20202. jexster - 8/29/2007 11:21:52 AM

20200

On January 24, 1999, during the Clinton impeachment, Senator Craig told Tim Russert on Meet the Press:

"The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy, a naughty boy. I'm going to speak out for the citizens of my state, who in the majority think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy."

20203. jexster - 8/29/2007 11:51:39 AM

Little Britain
Sir Norman Fry - Public Toilet

20204. jexster - 8/29/2007 3:02:47 PM

Here ya go Arky..what are you waiting for?

Huffington Post: Obama Field Organizers Plot Miracle

20205. robertjayb - 8/29/2007 4:34:39 PM

He did what?

20206. jexster - 8/29/2007 5:17:55 PM

They eat their own


McCain and Stormin Norman Coleman have called on Craig to resign


"Do the crime, can't do time in the USS"

20207. jexster - 8/29/2007 5:26:44 PM

Karl Your Kar is Ready



Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove's car, Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007, after someone wrapped the car in plastic wrap and put eagles and stickers, including one with I love Obama on it. The car was parked on White House grounds.

20208. arkymalarky - 8/29/2007 6:01:19 PM

'splain the picture, Robert!

20209. jexster - 8/29/2007 6:03:41 PM

GOP Forces Senator Wide Stance to Resign Posts


TD get that cat out of your ass!

No justice
No fucking peace


FREE SENATOR PETER PUMPER!!

20210. robertjayb - 8/29/2007 6:15:25 PM

Craig volunteered unkind remarks during Clinton's Monica troubles. Now the big dog reacts to Craig's toilet adventure.

20211. arkymalarky - 8/29/2007 6:19:24 PM

AAAAAAAhhh!

20212. concerned - 8/29/2007 6:20:59 PM

Maybe Craig'll switch parties and improve the average ethical level of both.

20213. jexster - 8/29/2007 6:21:11 PM

And Robert You don't look much like Bevo to me

20214. jexster - 8/29/2007 6:32:07 PM

20212


You mean the democrats to take this freak too?!?!??!

I don't think so


Rudy 3 Pussies You DA MAN!

20215. jexster - 8/29/2007 8:11:46 PM

You may not think much is happening but that's because you live here. Laura and I dont...

Surprise
Surprise

Grand Old PigPile Sleazebag and Iraqi Lobbyist Haley Barbour gets TWICE as much for Mississippi as NOLA



EDITORIAL: Treat us fairly, Mr. President
Times Picayune 08/29/2007

Nobody wants to have to compete for disaster relief. But that is what Louisianians have had to do in the two years since Hurricane Katrina struck.

20216. jexster - 8/29/2007 8:32:07 PM

Robert posted the item Bush asks for 50 Billion more for Iraq keep his Surge into Hell going until the Army has run out of troops - next year.

Did we say he lied back in January?

What I didn't realize and what EJ Dionne pointed out, Bush is at the same time making a huge stink of the fact that Congress dares to spend 22 billion more than Bush requested on domestic needs !


Folks if Congress caves, as they probably will, we'll be spending $3 Billion a week in Iraq for God only knows what


No wonder Congress is so unpopular. That's what 49 seat Senate 'majority' means

20217. concerned - 8/29/2007 10:09:45 PM

As far as jexster is concerned, 'Democrats' and 'Responsibility' mix like oil and water. He just admitted it.

20218. concerned - 8/29/2007 10:13:04 PM

Folks if Congress caves, as they probably will, we'll be spending $3 Billion a week in Iraq for God only knows what

Now the moron has a God complex. More like Allah Oops.

20219. concerned - 8/29/2007 10:36:46 PM

Congress caving? Looks like the 'Rats don't have game. Good-bye Peloser IQ. Hell-oo Peloser shoe size.

20220. jexster - 8/29/2007 11:33:31 PM

GOP Bathroom Etiquette Breakdown

20221. jexster - 8/29/2007 11:36:38 PM

20219 - Still Crazy After All These Years

Call me crazy but I think the Republicans will retain control of both houses of Congress
Concerned, Election night not 2 hours before....

20222. concerned - 8/29/2007 11:45:55 PM

Not as crazy as the ones who are suffering voters' remorse now, jexster.

20223. concerned - 8/29/2007 11:49:13 PM

It takes something special for a Congress to have an approval rating in the bottom quartile among the majority party electorate after only six months in office.

Something like terminal incompetence.

20224. wonkers2 - 8/30/2007 6:41:15 AM

Too many GOP incompetents, hypocrites, pedophiles and crooks.

20225. robertjayb - 8/30/2007 10:14:14 AM

Our own cellar door has a LATimes op-ed on Senator Craig's situation: Our (not so) private Idahos..

Gentle reader, by now you've probably read more than you ever nightmared you'd want to know about the latest Republican gay-sex scandal. The revelation that Idaho Sen. Larry Craig was caught allegedly trolling for sex in a Minnesota airport men's room in June comes on the heels of Florida state Rep. Robert Allen's July restroom arrest, making it reasonable to suspect that yet another GOP bathroom bust may burst forth by the time this Op-Ed article goes to press.

But barring further white-tiled tragedy, the all-too-obvious question remains, "What in the Sam Hill is going on here?" The answer rests on what can safely be described as bipartisan grounds.

20226. jexster - 8/30/2007 11:33:43 AM

Deja vu all over again Wonkler


Clinton Under Another Donor Cloud


Democratic death wish

But at least it gives me my FOURTH Rod Ham Experience Check List Item.


No one it seems bothers to ask the question, in the midst of Rod Ham's WMD against Obama's "lack of experience", just what experience Billary has that would prepare her for the Ovary Orifice.

So I'm working on a list. Feel free to join in

1. Sponsor the Great Health Care Debacle 1993, where HRC blew the first chance since 1948 for major health care reform

2. Co-Sponsor the GOP Takeover of Congress 1994-2006

3. Co-Sponsor the Greatest Strategic Disaster in US History

4. Towel matron, Lincoln bedroom bathroom

Being First Lady doesn't qualify you to be president - Zbig



Neither does 1-4 above

20227. jexster - 8/30/2007 12:08:32 PM

Is Cheney Plotting September Attack on Iran?

20228. jexster - 8/30/2007 12:11:49 PM

Worst Congress Ever

Rank and File Democrats Furious That More Bush Isn't Burnt


Sing along TD!

20229. jexster - 8/30/2007 12:48:04 PM

The PetRaeus Punt

Pentagon Won't Make Recommendation on "Surge" BushWar Escalation

20230. jexster - 8/30/2007 12:53:26 PM

BushKill - 30,000 Casualties

3800 dead
27,000 wounded

20231. jexster - 8/30/2007 1:00:01 PM

Three Down, Fifteen Benchmarks to Go
Pelosi Slams Bush Over GAO Findings

No wonder PetRaeus finds discretion the better part of PR! That and the fact that Bush has thoroughly decimated the Army

20232. jexster - 8/30/2007 1:01:06 PM

TD...look for the GrandOldPigpile in the toilet bowl

20233. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/30/2007 1:43:50 PM

Historical Quote of the Day:

"A moment I've been dreading. George brought his ne're-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida. The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they'll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work."

-- Ronald Reagan in his recently published diaries, May 17, 1986.

20234. jexster - 8/30/2007 3:07:31 PM

Olbermann - Craig Arrest Reenactment
I carry a badge

The Grand Old Preverts

20235. jexster - 8/30/2007 3:13:48 PM

Wizzer has the Mote Catch of the Millenium

20236. robertjayb - 8/30/2007 4:05:28 PM

MSNBC is airing taped police interview with Craig.

20237. robertjayb - 8/30/2007 4:13:07 PM

Fred Thompson will announce his run for prez on Sept. 6, says MSNBC.

20238. jexster - 8/30/2007 4:53:28 PM

"I am just real disappointed. I even voted for you"


That's life in the GOP Toilet Bowl

20239. jexster - 8/30/2007 4:56:00 PM

And just maybe, reviewing this appalling history of invoicing orgies and million-dollar boondoggles, it's not so far-fetched to think that this is the way someone up there would like things run all over - not just in Iraq but in Iowa, too, with the state police working for Corrections Corporation of America, and DHL with the contract to deliver every Christmas card. And why not?

What the Bush administration has created in Iraq is a sort of paradise of perverted capitalism, where revenues are forcibly extracted from the customer by the state, and obscene profits are handed out not by the market but by an unaccountable government bureaucracy. This is the triumphant culmination of two centuries of flawed white-people thinking, a preposterous mix of authoritarian socialism and laissez-faire profiteering, with all the worst aspects of both ideologies rolled up into one pointless, supremely idiotic military adventure - American men and women dying by the thousands, so that Karl Marx and Adam Smith can blow each other in a Middle Eastern glory hole.

Matt Taibbi

20240. jexster - 8/30/2007 5:10:55 PM

Sorry Wiz, gotta take back your award


The Reagan Quote is BOGUS

20241. jexster - 8/30/2007 8:05:45 PM

Grand Old Perverts

Senator PeterPumper's Interview Tape

I can't believe they hauled out the Texas cockroach to prattle on about Alcee Hastings and Barney Fag on Hardball.


Mathews took the Raid to him

20242. jexster - 8/30/2007 8:26:14 PM

He's so afraid of Gates, Bush didn't inform him of the 50 billion funding supplemental for IraQ.

Gates had to read about it in the paper - according to Brit Hume of Faux News

All's well in the Fuehrer Bunker

20243. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/30/2007 8:30:45 PM

Sorry Jex, but it was sent to me by a usually reliable source, so I believed it too.

It is so utterly plausible, however--other than the fact that Ronnie Raggin' was slightly less of a surrogate-dunderhead-for-the rich as W.

20244. jexster - 8/30/2007 9:02:05 PM

I STILL believe it!! If he didn't say it, he was thinkin it

20245. jexster - 8/30/2007 11:02:16 PM

IraQ Corruption Probe Widens

20246. jexster - 8/30/2007 11:07:47 PM

Worse Congress Ever!

TD's been "waiting for Demo scandals"
TD's been waiting for Godot

The GOPigpile Opens Muck Gap

20247. concerned - 8/31/2007 1:34:01 AM

"utterly plausible"

...if you're a deranged LW nutcase, that is.

20248. concerned - 8/31/2007 1:36:03 AM

"utterly plausible"

...if you're a deranged LW nutcase, that is.

20249. concerned - 8/31/2007 1:38:18 AM

Re. 20246 -

How does a Republican striking a blow for Democrat 'rights' translate into a scandal in your book?

20250. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/31/2007 7:44:25 AM

20251. jexster - 8/31/2007 10:15:54 AM

Grim and Grimmer for Dumb and Dumber

WASHINGTON - President Bush is expected to hear deep concerns Friday from top Pentagon generals about continuing the military buildup in Iraq, as yet another grim independent report emerges finding lack of progress in the conflict



A Republican "striking a blow for democratic rights" is a RINO

20252. jexster - 8/31/2007 10:16:24 AM

Link

20253. jexster - 8/31/2007 10:19:07 AM

hehehehehe

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A US Air Force C-130 aircraft carrying a congressional delegation had come under surface-to-air fire as it departed from Baghdad airport a day ago, the US military announced Friday.

"The aircrew dispensed flares as a defensive countermeasure and conducted standard evasive maneuvers," the military said, adding the aircraft, crew and passengers safely completed their flight to Washington on Thursday.

20254. jexster - 8/31/2007 11:06:10 AM

Rove couldn't get up to deliver a farewell speech to the final staff meeting today because he was crying like a bitch

20255. jexster - 8/31/2007 11:15:28 AM

Larry Craig MOving to Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa - Less than two hours after a judge struck down Iowa's decade-old gay marriage ban, two Des Moines men applied for a marriage license as bride and groom, and county officials said they expected to see more same-sex couples doing the same on Friday.

20256. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/31/2007 11:22:12 AM

August 31, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Katrina All the Time

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Two years ago today, Americans watched in horror as a great city drowned, and wondered what had happened to their country. Where was FEMA? Where was the National Guard? Why wasn’t the government of the world’s richest, most powerful nation coming to the aid of its own citizens?

What we mostly saw on TV was the nightmarish scene at the Superdome, but things were even worse at the New Orleans convention center, where thousands were stranded without food or water. The levees were breached Monday morning — but as late as Thursday evening, The Washington Post reported, the convention center “still had no visible government presence,” while “corpses lay out in the open among wailing babies and other refugees.”

Meanwhile, federal officials were oblivious. “We are extremely pleased with the response that every element of the federal government, all of our federal partners, have made to this terrible tragedy,” declared Michael Chertoff, the secretary for Homeland Security, on Wednesday. When asked the next day about the situation at the convention center, he dismissed the reports as “a rumor” or “someone’s anecdotal version.”

Today, much of the Gulf Coast remains in ruins. Less than half the federal money set aside for rebuilding, as opposed to emergency relief, has actually been spent, in part because the Bush administration refused to waive the requirement that local governments put up matching funds for recovery projects — an impossible burden for communities whose tax bases have literally been washed away.

On the other hand, generous investment tax breaks, supposedly designed to spur recovery in the disaster area, have been used to build luxury condominiums near the University of Alabama’s football stadium in Tuscaloosa, 200 miles inland.

But why should we be surprised by any of this? The Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina — the mixture of neglect of those in need, obliviousness to their plight, and self-congratulation in the face of abject failure — has become standard operating procedure. These days, it’s Katrina all the time.

Consider the White House reaction to new Census data on income, poverty and health insurance. By any normal standard, this week’s report was a devastating indictment of the administration’s policies. After all, last year the administration insisted that the economy was booming — and whined that it wasn’t getting enough credit. What the data show, however, is that 2006, while a good year for the wealthy, brought only a slight decline in the poverty rate and a modest rise in median income, with most Americans still considerably worse off than they were before President Bush took office.

Most disturbing of all, the number of Americans without health insurance jumped. At this point, there are 47 million uninsured people in this country, 8.5 million more than there were in 2000. Mr. Bush may think that being uninsured is no big deal — “you just go to an emergency room” — but the reality is that if you’re uninsured every illness is a catastrophe, your own private Katrina.

Yet the White House press release on the report declared that President Bush was “pleased” with the new numbers. Heckuva job, economy!

Mr. Bush’s only concession that something might be amiss was to say that “challenges remain in reducing the number of uninsured Americans” — a statement reminiscent of Emperor Hirohito’s famous admission, in his surrender broadcast, that “the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage.” And Mr. Bush’s solution — more tax cuts, of course — has about as much relevance to the real needs of the uninsured as subsidies for luxury condos in Tuscaloosa have to the needs of New Orleans’s Ninth Ward.

The question is whether any of this will change when Mr. Bush leaves office.

There’s a powerful political faction in this country that’s determined to draw exactly the wrong lesson from the Katrina debacle — namely, that the government always fails when it attempts to help people in need, so it shouldn’t even try. “I don’t want the people who ran the Katrina cleanup to manage our health care system,” says Mitt Romney, as if the Bush administration’s practice of appointing incompetent cronies to key positions and refusing to hold them accountable no matter how badly they perform — did I mention that Mr. Chertoff still has his job? — were the way government always works.

And I’m not sure that faction is losing the argument. The thing about conservative governance is that it can succeed by failing: when conservative politicians mess up, they foster a cynicism about government that may actually help their cause.

Future historians will, without doubt, see Katrina as a turning point. The question is whether it will be seen as the moment when America remembered the importance of good government, or the moment when neglect and obliviousness to the needs of others became the new American way.

20257. jexster - 8/31/2007 11:39:48 AM

They run against the government so they can run it, ruin it and run against it again



If this weren't the United States of Amnesia, these hucksters would have real jobs

20258. jexster - 8/31/2007 12:46:47 PM

I got to get to NYC post-haste

Eric I'm coming!

Foot Tapping Ritual Common in Sex Stings
TPM dispatched its interns to every public bathroom in the Port Authority to investigate the story further. (TPM)

20259. jexster - 8/31/2007 1:12:38 PM

Dumb as a Sack of Hammers

In his speech Tuesday to the American Legion President Bush proclaimed, "For all those who ask whether the fight in Iraq is worth it, imagine an Iraq where militia groups backed by Iran control large parts of the country." That doesn't take a vivid imagination, however - the reality on the ground is that Iran-backed militias and their political allies already control large parts of the country. And as this week's violence in Karbala demonstrates, those militias are fighting each other for supremacy as U.S. and British influence wanes.

20260. jexster - 8/31/2007 1:32:56 PM

So why should anyone believe anything he now says about Iraq?


I dunno TD, Why?




To be fair, I didn't realize that, in addition to gay marriages in Iowa, there is also an epidemic of flag burning sweeping the nation. Next thing you know, Republicans will be doing the nasty with billy goats

20261. concerned - 8/31/2007 1:39:10 PM

Re. 20256 -

Krugman giving more proof that he's an idiot. Why doesn't he ask why there was almost no effort by the City of N'awlins or the State of Lousyanna to help their own citizens, unless you count whining about the Federal Government not stepping in as fast as these lazy negligent asses would prefer? Oh, that's right! Only Republicans are actually responsible for anything, because Democrats can't do shit anyway.

Krugman isn't much of an economist if he can't do a better job of explaining the options that state and local governments have for raising matching funds. Not all money has to be raised on the spur of the moment by imposing new taxes for fuck sakes. And 'washed away' - such bullshit.

20262. jexster - 8/31/2007 1:53:09 PM

Worst Congress Ever - World's Greatest Deliberative Body

I always spread my legs when I drop my pants

Sen. Larry "Toilet Bowl" Craig

20263. jexster - 8/31/2007 1:54:06 PM

20261 - TD of course bloviates...no evidence..no facts but why bother, facts are the last thing Republicans care about

20264. jexster - 8/31/2007 1:58:33 PM

Case in point...they tell us the surge is working because sectarian attacks are down

Sounds good. Just like Why doesn't he ask why there was almost no effort by the City of N'awlins or the State of Lousyanna to help their own citizens

Sounds good. Dump on Louisiana (a good red state!)..Dump on the niggers..always a good strategy

But then facts, they're pesky things aren't they

Fuzzy Math: Stats Scrambled in DOD Iraq Reports
BushOgon fucks with Figures

20265. jexster - 8/31/2007 2:03:52 PM

Grand Old Toilet politics

A year later, Iraq is still in flames, and your president's administration is safely focused on reclaiming $485 million in aid money from a bunch of toothless black survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

According to the most reliable estimates, we have doled out more than $500 billion for the war, as well as $44 billion for the Iraqi reconstruction effort. And what did America's contractors give us for that money? They built big steaming shit piles, set brand-new trucks on fire, drove back and forth across the desert for no reason at all and dumped bags of nails in ditches. For the most part, nobody at home cared, because war on some level is always a waste. But what happened in Iraq went beyond inefficiency, beyond fraud even. This was about the business of government being corrupted by the profit motive to such an extraordinary degree that now we all have to wonder how we will ever be able to depend on the state to do its job in the future. If catastrophic failure is worth billions, where's the incentive to deliver success? There's no profit in patriotism, no cost-plus angle on common decency. Sixty years after America liberated Europe, those are just words, and words don't pay the bills.

Weapons of Mass Distraction - a time honored tactic of the Grand Old Pigpile


Toilet politics

20266. robertjayb - 8/31/2007 2:10:25 PM

John Warner will not run for another senate term. (CNN)

20267. jexster - 8/31/2007 2:21:42 PM

Worse Congress ever may well get one Senate seat better

20268. jexster - 8/31/2007 2:46:31 PM

20261

Justice Dept. Probing Whether Gonzales Lied


Maybe the dumb nigrahs of N'walins should have hired that Fat Scumsucker Haley Barbour.

IraQ Crook and CIA Henchman Allawi did

20269. concerned - 8/31/2007 2:47:51 PM

Dump on the niggers..always a good strategy

Unfortunately for you, jex all that's the 'Rat Party's department. After owning them as slaves and then destroying their family structure, they're trying to bribe them with promises of governmental bribes to assuage their guilty consciences.

20270. concerned - 8/31/2007 2:48:37 PM

...governmental payouts....

20271. concerned - 8/31/2007 3:01:23 PM

IAC, it's very ironic that Lousiana Democrats are criticizing the Federal Government for not jumping through hoops fast enough while they themselves are sitting on their fat asses.

20272. jexster - 8/31/2007 3:19:03 PM

Won't even have to change the name on the office door

The most likely Democratic contender is former Gov. Mark R. Warner, a wealthy Alexandria businessman who left office in early 2006 with unprecedented job-approval ratings. Mark Warner, who is not related to the senator, unsuccessfully challenged him in the 1996 Senate race

20273. jexster - 8/31/2007 3:20:17 PM

One thing among many that TD just don't get is the South


The good ole boyz have been republicans for three decades


Maybe in the next life when TD comes back into the TRoom Trade

20274. jexster - 8/31/2007 3:21:04 PM

20271

My invite to produce facts still open

Won't hold my breath

20275. jexster - 8/31/2007 3:22:07 PM

Maybe I forward message to Senator Ho House Vitter and the rest of the mostly REPUBLICAN delegation..except for NOLA of course...too black to be republican

20276. concerned - 8/31/2007 3:24:10 PM

Re. 20273 -

No, they haven't. Jim Crow, KKK, Robert Byrd, slavery -

all wholly owned subsidiaries of the 'Rat Party.

Screwing black people over throughout history - it's what Democrats are all about.

20277. concerned - 8/31/2007 3:27:48 PM

AFAIC, all Democrats have a little Robert Byrd (some more than a little) in them.

20278. jexster - 8/31/2007 3:39:50 PM

Like I said, you don't know the South from your asshole


The one with the cat in it

If you're right then either all nigrahs vote republican, and white Dem (as it was in 1870!) or nigrahs are stoopid (the GOPigpile position in 2007)

Just 130 years behind TD..you can catch up....spend some time with the Wombat in the History Thread

20279. concerned - 8/31/2007 4:06:37 PM

Most 'nigras', as you put it, are living the 'Rat approved lifestyle, and they have the high poverty and crime rates to prove it.

As far as general stupidity goes, the 'Rats as a political party have a corner on that.

20280. jexster - 8/31/2007 4:25:11 PM

Don't worry TD. Roberts has declared the Emancipation Nigger Nation and the Solid Republican South shall rise again

20281. jexster - 8/31/2007 4:26:21 PM

Boy dem coloreds ain't too bright are they! I mean choosing that Democratic lifestyle of crime and drugs over the Grand Old Pigpile toilet

20282. jexster - 8/31/2007 4:27:37 PM

Bus h Faces Mounting Reports of Iraq Failure

20283. jexster - 8/31/2007 4:32:21 PM

Larry Craig and the Singing Senators of the Grand Old Pigpile




Old Folks at Home

20284. jexster - 8/31/2007 4:33:59 PM

Let the Eagle Soar

Right up TD's ass...the cat needs company

20285. jexster - 8/31/2007 5:12:16 PM

Don your flak jackets Hanoi John and Likud Lieberman....the Freedom Fighters have your flight number

That C130 under surface to air fire out of Saddam International..

Richard Shelby
James Inoffe
and supporting cast of Lesser Grand Old Pigpilians


Worst congress ever would have had a major improvement


Better luck next time Ragheads..work on your aim

20286. robertjayb - 8/31/2007 7:51:43 PM

Craig will quit...

BOISE, Idaho -- Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig will resign from the Senate amid a furor over his arrest and guilty plea in a police sex sting in an airport men's room, Republican officials said Friday.

Craig will announce at a news conference in Boise Saturday morning that he will resign effective Sept. 30, four state GOP officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

(AP)

20287. Max Macks - 8/31/2007 8:06:47 PM

Likud lIEBERMAN ! how accurate

20288. jexster - 8/31/2007 9:48:19 PM

How George Bush Is Destroying the US Army
We have a Congress that has no idea what it is doing
Sargent with Apache Company, Baghdad

We used to see reports like this nightly during the Vietnam War. This is the first such I have seen on US network news - a report with commentary from two military psychologists on the NewsHour, narrated by a BRIT - from the Guardian UK which ran a lengthy Sunday article on the burnt out US military.

We can't come down. We never have time to rest

20289. jexster - 8/31/2007 10:10:33 PM

20290. jexster - 9/1/2007 12:23:27 AM

20291. jexster - 9/1/2007 12:32:05 AM

Not More Grand Old Preversions!

Rudy "Three Pussies" enters the fray with a Florida campaign official - Rudy's Faggot Serial Groper

20292. jexster - 9/1/2007 12:33:04 AM

Sure you aren't a peterpumper too TD?

We know the Ace of Spades is

The next high heel to drop????

20293. robertjayb - 9/1/2007 2:20:16 PM

Less than meets the eye to *'s housing/credit scheme...

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Friday unveiled his plan to address homeowners who face foreclosure in the nation's credit crunch and housing slump.

The plan was announced days before Congress returns from its August recess with housing issues high on its agenda. The proposals, however, duplicate efforts already under way by Congress and other federal agencies, would help at most 21 percent of the homeowners facing foreclosures and would do little to help areas in which inflated real estate prices are a problem.

20294. jexster - 9/1/2007 5:47:17 PM

Lincoln Day Dinner
Gov Ahnold Schwarzenegger and the Grand Old Perversts of Califoria Invite YOU




San Francisco International Airport
All Terminals
Restrooms Reserved

RSVP
1-800-TOI-LETU

20295. jexster - 9/1/2007 11:06:54 PM

Red State Update: Concerned on the Toilet

20296. robertjayb - 9/1/2007 11:17:24 PM

Hunter tops Texas straw poll...

FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopeful Duncan Hunter scored a symbolic victory on Saturday, winning a low-turnout Texas straw poll that drew only a few second-tier candidates in the White House race.

Hunter, a California congressman, whose big issues are border security and strong national defense, took about 41 percent of the 1,300 votes cast.

Former Tennessee senator and actor Fred Thompson, who will formally launch his White House run next week, came second with about 20 percent of the vote. Texas Congressman Ron Paul was third with just under 17 percent of the vote.

20297. jexster - 9/1/2007 11:29:40 PM

“During the week of October 22-26, 2007, the nation will be rocked by the biggest conservative campus protest ever – Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, a wake-up call for Americans on 200 university and college campuses.” The event will confront the two “Big Lies of the political left:” that “George Bush created the war on terror and that Global Warming is a greater danger to Americans than the terrorist threat.”

20298. jexster - 9/1/2007 11:36:53 PM

Fatally Flawed

Gloucester Eating Surrender Monkeys
Second British General Rips BushWar Strategery

20299. jexster - 9/2/2007 11:30:52 AM

Worst Congress Ever

GOP Faces Growing Peril In 2008 Races
Senate Prospects Dimming




TD, I've reserved a seat for you at next year's Lincoln Day Dinner





and he's still crazy after all these years

20300. jexster - 9/2/2007 11:32:26 AM

"It's always darkest right before you get clobbered over the head with a pipe wrench. But then it actually does get darker," said a GOP pollster who insisted on anonymity in order to speak candidly.

20301. jexster - 9/3/2007 5:13:29 PM

I hear the Bush is declaring victory..and not a minute too soon either

IraQ No Longer Exists

TOM FOREMAN, CNN ANCHOR, THIS WEEK AT WAR:Nir, based on what you are saying though the problem is there is no credible alternative is there?

ROSEN: There is no government to begin with. It's a collection of militias. And indeed, there is no alternative. The whole focus on the government in Baghdad is the -- problem is that -- in everybody's approach. In Iraq it used to be you could have a coup replace the government and the whole country followed. But now Iraqi is a collection of city states, Baghdad, Tikrit, Kirkuk, Mosul, Basra, Erbil, each one with its own warlords. They don't answer to Baghdad. Baghdad has no control over them. When we overthrew Saddam, we imposed one dictator after another. We didn't like Prime Minister Jaafari so we got rid of him and we put in his close ally, Maliki. And now the occupier is once again upset that the occupied people are not being sufficiently obedient. But it doesn't matter. We are past that stage. Iraq doesn't exist as a state anymore. The government has never existed. It has never brought in any services. Even the most fundamental service the government can provide, a monopoly over the use of violence, it doesn't provide that because it has never controlled the militias and militias are the ones that control the police and the army.

20302. jexster - 9/3/2007 10:38:24 PM

Life in the Pigpile TD...


Within G.O.P., Months of Stumping Fail to Impress



For Democrats, Primary Field Gives Confidence

20303. jexster - 9/4/2007 10:50:35 AM

Dora Market: PetRaeus's Potemkin Village

20304. robertjayb - 9/4/2007 11:34:04 AM

Good catch, jexster. I hope Sgt. Campbell wasn't planning on a long military career. Truth to power is not real welcome in bushieville.

20305. concerned - 9/4/2007 12:41:37 PM

Re. 20301 -

Allowing his premise, jexster would have also denied the Holy Roman Empire on the strength of the same argument, but it didn't wash then and it doesn't wash now in Iraq.

Since there's only one entity that calls itself the Iraqi government, Iraq does indeed still exist.

20306. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/4/2007 12:47:14 PM

Arcane contorted logic . . . or senility? You decide!

20307. jexster - 9/4/2007 12:51:50 PM

Benchmarks? We Don't Need No Stinkin Benchmarks!

20308. jexster - 9/4/2007 12:52:24 PM

Wizzer..that's disgusting

20309. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/4/2007 12:56:06 PM

Really?

20310. jexster - 9/4/2007 2:04:19 PM

But not so disgusting as this...

John Yoo - Godsend to Bush Administration Officials Fearful of War Crimes Prosecutions

20311. jexster - 9/4/2007 2:07:56 PM

Goldsmith Sings Like a Canary

After a bit of silence, Goldsmith told me, Gonzales thanked Ashcroft, and he and Card walked out of the room. “At that moment,” Goldsmith recalled, “Mrs. Ashcroft, who obviously couldn’t believe what she saw happening to her sick husband, looked at Gonzales and Card as they walked out of the room and stuck her tongue out at them. She had no idea what we were discussing, but this sweet-looking woman sticking out her tongue was the ultimate expression of disapproval. It captured the feeling in the room perfectly.”

20312. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/4/2007 3:51:24 PM

When the fuck are the Dems going to wake up and impeach those bastard despots?

20313. concerned - 9/4/2007 4:12:50 PM

I'd really like to see those Pelosers try!

20314. jexster - 9/4/2007 4:51:17 PM

That makes 3 of us!

20315. jexster - 9/4/2007 4:53:02 PM

“The calendar has not changed,.It’s September. We have reached this goal. It’s time to make a decision. We can’t continue the way we are. We can’t afford it, militarily and financially.”

Harry Reid

20316. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/4/2007 5:22:06 PM

Go find your wallet, connie . . . after you watch this . . .

20317. jexster - 9/4/2007 5:50:42 PM

How much for the boy Wiz?

20318. concerned - 9/4/2007 5:59:53 PM

Coalition of nuns calls for impeaching Bush and Cheney

NOW I know what Whacko of Wooziness is. A nun!

20319. judithathome - 9/4/2007 6:13:45 PM

Jex, that kid needs a good night's sleep...those bags under his eyes are disturbing.

20320. jexster - 9/4/2007 6:22:59 PM

I will restore him

Just like George W. restored the troops



Dana Perino - Comfort Girl

20321. jexster - 9/4/2007 6:23:30 PM

I think TD's got something against both man and GOD

20322. jexster - 9/4/2007 6:25:26 PM

He may just be a kid today but in 6-7 years he be bad, and he be legal

20323. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/4/2007 7:44:28 PM

Rudy was right, 30 seconds is not enough time to cover (up) all of his screw-ups . . .

20324. jexster - 9/4/2007 7:59:41 PM

That Crawford Village idiot not only lied when he said he didn't know how it came to be that Bremmer disbanded the Iraqi army, he apparently told his prequel biographer that he couldn't wait to get out of office and make tons of money from speeches



Goes down well with the poor soldiers eating sand in Iraq

20325. jexster - 9/4/2007 8:16:03 PM

I'm playing for November, December to get the presidential candidates in a position to back a sustained presence

20326. robertjayb - 9/4/2007 9:12:35 PM

He's baaaack! Maybe.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Sen. Larry Craig is reconsidering his decision to resign after his arrest in a Minnesota airport sex sting and may still fight for his Senate seat, his spokesman said Tuesday evening.

''It's not such a foregone conclusion anymore, that the only thing he could do was resign,'' said Sidney Smith, Craig's spokesman in Idaho's capital.

Methinks old Larry is just knee-deep in dumb.

Don't do it, Larry. You've been the nation's pathetic laughing-stock for a week, ten days now.
Why try to extend the disgrace? Unless, of course, you are a masochist...

20327. robertjayb - 9/4/2007 9:26:34 PM

Another stupid war that should be shut down...(Neal Peirce)

Thirty-eight million arrests, most for simple possession. Lives ruined, families disrupted. America turned into the most prison-happy nation on the face of the Earth.

Illegal rewards incentivizing shooting fields in inner-city neighborhoods — enough bloodshed to appall even an Al Capone. Over $1 trillion in taxpayer outlays.

Thirty-six years after President Richard Nixon inaugurated this country's misbegotten "war on drugs," worldwide narcotics markets are booming, drug ring profits are higher than ever, and drugs cost less than ever on the street.

Our "war" is a miserable, incredibly costly failure.

20328. jexster - 9/4/2007 10:50:44 PM

It was the White House and the Iraqi government, not Congress, that first proposed the benchmarks for Iraq that are now producing failing grades, a provenance that raises questions about why the administration is declaring now that the government’s performance is not the best measure of change.

OOOPS time to change the grading scale. That's how he got through Yale.


Boolah boolah

20329. jexster - 9/4/2007 11:16:44 PM

Larry ain't goin quietly to the Grand Old Pigpilian lynchin. Specter's got his back. So does Tom DeLay


I suggest they redo the t-rooms on Capitol Hill


Craig Proof

20330. thoughtful - 9/5/2007 12:14:05 PM

Yesterday, froomkin pointed out this excellent piece by Greenwald at salon, including:

Goldsmith argued continuously about his conclusion with Addington, and during the course of those arguments, this is what happened:

[Goldsmith] shared the White House's concern that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act might prevent wiretaps on international calls involving terrorists. But Goldsmith deplored the way the White House tried to fix the problem, which was highly contemptuous of Congress and the courts. "We're one bomb away from getting rid of that obnoxious [FISA] court," Goldsmith recalls Addington telling him in February 2004.

Their goal all along was to "get rid of the obnoxious FISA court" entirely, so that they could freely eavesdrop on whomever they wanted with no warrants or oversight of any kind. And here is Dick Cheney's top aide, drooling with anticipation at the prospect of another terrorist attack so that they could seize this power without challenge. Addington views the Next Terrorist Attack as the golden opportunity to seize yet more power. Sitting around the White House dreaming of all the great new powers they will have once the new terrorist attack occurs -- as Addington was doing -- is nothing short of deranged.

20331. thoughtful - 9/5/2007 12:23:05 PM

Froomkin also highlighted this:

"Draper pressed Bush to explain why, if he wanted to maintain the army, his chief administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, issued an order in May 2003 disbanding the 400,000-strong army without pay.

"'Yeah, I can't remember; I'm sure I said, 'This is the policy, what happened?' ' Bush said, adding: 'Again, Hadley's got notes on all this stuff' -- a reference to national security advisor Stephen J. Hadley."

James Fallows blogs for the Atlantic about Bush's "magical combination of certainty and lack of curiosity": "Think about this. The dissolution of the Iraq military is one of the six most-criticized and most-often-discussed aspects of the Administration's entire approach to Iraq. (Others: the decision to invade at all; the assessment of WMD; the size of the initial invasion-and-occupation force; the decision not to stop the looting of Baghdad; and the operation of Abu Ghraib.) And the President who has staked the fortunes of his Administration, his party, his place in history, and (come to think of it ) his nation on the success of his Iraq policy cannot remember and even now cannot be bothered to find out how the decision was made."

20332. thoughtful - 9/5/2007 12:23:23 PM

Only one word for it....bankrupt.

20333. robertjayb - 9/5/2007 12:26:36 PM

Senator Johnson is back...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson returned to the Senate on Wednesday physically weaker but saying he anticipates running for re-election next year.

Johnson, a Democrat, has been out since suffering a life-threatening brain hemorrhage nine months ago. The effects of the hemorrhage are clear -- he uses a scooter to get around and his words are slow and slurred.

But his mind appears sharp, and he gave every indication of wanting to stay.

''It feels good and I'm ready to go,'' he said after returning to his office.

20334. jexster - 9/5/2007 12:34:42 PM

Glenn Greenwald..I'm a big fan

20335. jexster - 9/5/2007 5:07:58 PM

George Who?

GOP tries rebranding to win back voters

For Republicans today, live coverage of Bush in their district is more often something to avoid than seek.

20336. jexster - 9/5/2007 6:44:47 PM

Have to say after listenining to the talking heads breathlessly claim that McConnell was minutes away from "firing up the bus and running over Craig one more time", the man has a point!

Gotta Say It
Okay, Sen. McConnell has now sanctioned Sen. Craig's bizarre decision to recant his guilty plea and his resignation.

What's Sen. Craig got on Mitch McConnell?

--Josh Marshall

20337. judithathome - 9/5/2007 7:00:26 PM

God, it just keeps getting more and more bizarre....

20338. jexster - 9/5/2007 7:02:50 PM

I'm having a harder and harder time figuring what's up with Republicans - why they stick cats and wallets up their asses; molest young boys and cruise public bathrooms

TD any thoughts?

20339. robertjayb - 9/6/2007 12:40:33 AM

Spine transplants urgently needed...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 — With a mixed picture emerging about progress in Iraq, Senate Democratic leaders are showing a new openness to compromise as they try to attract Republican support for forcing at least modest troop withdrawals in the coming months.

After short-circuiting consideration of votes on some bipartisan proposals on Iraq before the August break, senior Democrats now say they are willing to rethink their push to establish a withdrawal deadline of next spring if doing so will attract the 60 Senate votes needed to prevail.

Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said, “If we have to make the spring part a goal, rather than something that is binding, and if that is able to produce some additional votes to get us over the filibuster, my own inclination would be to consider that.”
.................................................

"With a mixed picture emerging about progress in Iraq..."

Jeezaleezus! What's emerging is a carefully orchestrated con fronted by New Jesus, General Petraeus. He's a counterinsurgency guy. This is the sort of scams COIN people conduct.

20340. concerned - 9/6/2007 1:14:51 AM

How predictable from the Left. Don't like the message? Attack the messenger.

20341. judithathome - 9/6/2007 10:06:37 AM

Well, the message just might be false...and if it's not rosy enough, they change it to read that way. We know this from past experience.

Just because YOU fall for it doesn't make it true.

20342. jexster - 9/6/2007 11:00:29 AM

Iraq By the Numbers begins with a ringing call for "more of the same" from Lindsay Graham

20343. jexster - 9/6/2007 11:13:22 AM

Well wowee zowee Bush is lying again

Experts Doubt Drop In Violence in Iraq
Military Statistics Called Into Question

20344. jexster - 9/6/2007 3:16:40 PM

20345. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/6/2007 9:12:42 PM

"AS DEMOCRACY IS PERFECTED, THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT REPRESENTS, MORE AND MORE CLOSELY, THE INNER SOUL OF THE PEOPLE. ON SOME GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY, THE PLAIN FOLKS OF THE LAND WILL REACH THEIR HEART'S DESIRE AT LAST, AND THE WHITE HOUSE WILL BE ADORNED BY A DOWNRIGHT MORON." - Mark Twain

20346. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/6/2007 9:44:52 PM

Sorry, that quote is H. L. Mencken's; not Twain.

20347. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/6/2007 9:58:28 PM

I had Twain on my brain.

20348. jexster - 9/6/2007 11:18:47 PM

From the Grand Old Pigpile

Another North Carolina Republican Honcho Headed for the Big House


Bet the toilet sex can't be beat

20349. robertjayb - 9/7/2007 12:08:11 AM

Paul Krugman predicts dem response to "Petraeus" report...

Here’s what will definitely happen when Gen. David Petraeus testifies before Congress next week: he’ll assert that the surge has reduced violence in Iraq — as long as you don’t count Sunnis killed by Sunnis, Shiites killed by Shiites, Iraqis killed by car bombs and people shot in the front of the head.

Here’s what I’m afraid will happen: Democrats will look at Gen. Petraeus’s uniform and medals and fall into their usual cringe. They won’t ask hard questions out of fear that someone might accuse them of attacking the military. After the testimony, they’ll desperately try to get Republicans to agree to a resolution that politely asks President Bush to maybe, possibly, withdraw some troops, if he feels like it.

20350. concerned - 9/7/2007 12:13:15 AM

Tribalism and religion - an often deadly mix.

20351. jexster - 9/7/2007 6:54:56 AM

4 Twain Brained

The War Prayer

O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it-for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen

20352. jexster - 9/7/2007 6:56:22 AM

20349..

And Shillary will that very day tell us that she will end the war she helped start

20353. jexster - 9/7/2007 6:58:30 AM

Colored Man Cometh

Join Barack Obama in San Francisco
September 7 | San Francisco, CA!

20354. jexster - 9/7/2007 11:01:40 AM

Wonder why the greatest military the world has ever seen lost to a bunch rag heads with AK47's and pipe bombs?


SYDNEY, Australia - President Bush had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the Sydney Opera House.



He'd only reached the third sentence of Friday's speech to business leaders, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, when he committed his first gaffe.

"Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit," Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Oops. That would be APEC, the annual meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim nations, not OPEC, the cartel of 12 major oil producers.

Bush quickly corrected himself. "APEC summit," he said forcefully, joking that Howard had invited him to the OPEC summit next year (for the record, an impossibility, since neither Australia nor the U.S. are OPEC members).

The president's next goof went uncorrected — by him anyway. Talking about Howard's visit to Iraq last year to thank his country's soldiers serving there, Bush called them "Austrian troops."

That one was fixed for him. Though tapes of the speech clearly show Bush saying "Austrian," the official text released by the White House switched it to "Australian."

Then, speech done, Bush confidently headed out — the wrong way.

20355. judithathome - 9/7/2007 12:32:53 PM

REPORT? We Don't Need No Stinking Report!

20356. jexster - 9/7/2007 12:56:01 PM

Robert's right. The Dems are gonna cave. Shumer et al see that the GOP has toilet problems and 22 of 34 Senate Toilet seats up next year. They're rightly confident of holding the house no matter what and will make like marmots in the Senate.

Thanks Hillary....Took you four years to figure out you'd been screwed now we all are.

20357. jexster - 9/7/2007 12:56:56 PM

They'd better watch out...The base won't stand for their shit and the independents maybe even more dangerous because they aren't as attached to the label....

20358. jexster - 9/7/2007 12:57:40 PM

Cheney's Top Aide: 'One Bomb Away' From Our Goal
Glenn Greenwald

20359. jexster - 9/7/2007 5:58:42 PM

Just back from Obama's SF fundraiser - 2,000+ best political stump speech I have ever heard. Will look for video.


He is fucking amazing. After going through his injunction to work for things that aren't easy to achieve, he quiets crowd down with a story about Greenwood SC

Was at a dinner with SC politicians and sitting next to a state legislator. Wanted her endorsement "I'll endorse you if you go to Greenwood"

"I musta had a glass of wine so I said sure." Next time in the state, "I drag into the hotel about 11 and my staff tells me to get up at 5:30. 'You promised to go to Greenwood'"


"Welll Greenwood is about an hour and a half from everywhere else and I get up at 5;30 my back is hurting. I look out the window and it is pouring down rain. I go downstairs and my staff hands me the papers and one has a not too kind article on the front page. Nobody dare talk to me. I am looking mean"

Gets to Greenwood "About 20 people there looking very damp. So I go through the line "how are you? what do you do?" when all of a sudden there's this big voice behind us..everyone looks around

"FIRED UP! READY TO GO!"

A little 5'2" city councilwoman known for her chants keeps it goin "FIRED UP READY TO GO!" and the crowd responds.

"This went on for five minutes and you know what? I was fired up and I was ready to go!"

"So what about San Francisco........."

The end

20360. robertjayb - 9/7/2007 6:22:30 PM

jexster, you are a stone junkie. You really love this stuff.

The boy can't help it.

20361. jexster - 9/7/2007 6:28:16 PM

I really do...Been doin it since I was 7

Real coon asses drink politics instead of mama's milk


It was awesome. This guy is a freak of political nature. There were 400-500 folks paying 250 bucks to eat fried chicken in plastic containers and the rest of us unwashed mob a couple thousand or so..massive media in the balcony

Remember John Kerry? Remember Al Gore?

You know there are a number of candidates who;ve spent a long time in Washington and somehow think that makes them qualified to be President. And yes, they can do a better than reasonably competent job - of giving you the same old thing. They want you to support them because they know how to play the game. I want to stop the game playing"

20362. jexster - 9/7/2007 6:58:57 PM

NEW YORK - In a year voters say they crave fundamental political change, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton is taking a gamble: arguing that her years of experience working within the political system make her the best candidate to change the system.


But does her career — eight years as White House first lady, seven as senator from New York, and 12 as Arkansas first lady — offer evidence to support that claim? And will her message resonate with Democratic primary voters, who may not embrace a candidate so willing to seek accommodation?

20363. jexster - 9/7/2007 7:04:43 PM

Newsflash..the economy's headed for the same toilet as Iraq and Afghanistan. We sure need some of Hillary's leadership ability.

20364. jexster - 9/7/2007 7:33:22 PM

This didn't hurt. The event was Women For Obama. Kamela Harris the colored SF DA ..I detect her fine hand in this front page of the SF Chron today.


I know the student for Obama from the Camp thing





Woman for Obama

20365. robertjayb - 9/7/2007 10:50:36 PM

Isn't this sweet?

WASHINGTON — When they're not bickering, once in awhile members of Congress fall in love.

GOP Reps. Mary Bono of California and Connie Mack of Florida announced their engagement Friday after dating for two years.

"Happy news," Cullen said. Congress returned from its summer recess this week and the couple have been informing colleagues.

Bono, 45, was married to the late singer-turned-politician Sonny Bono, and replaced him in a special election in Congress in 1998 representing Palm Springs and other parts of inland Southern California.

20366. jexster - 9/8/2007 3:49:00 AM

They say we're young
We don't know....

20367. jexster - 9/8/2007 4:15:47 AM

Obama asks women to risk backing him


Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, hoping to make inroads with women voters, urged an overwhelmingly female audience on Friday to risk supporting him instead of someone "who will deliver competently more of the same."

Obama never mentioned by name Hillary Rodham Clinton, his chief rival for the party's nomination, but he offered several shots at the New York senator's claim that she is the only candidate with the experience to lead the nation effectively.

"There are those who tout their experience working the system in Washington. I understand that," the Illinois senator told about 3,000 die-hard Democrats at an event launching the California chapter of Women for Obama. "But the problem is, the system in Washington is not working for us."

Obama said he would not be a perfect president but will tell people where he stands and ask what they think.

"This campaign will be hard ... people who follow the well-worn grooves, people who will deliver competently more of the same. That's what they are counting on, that you will be too scared, that you will walk away, that this will seem too risky, this call to action," he said.

Obama cited a lack of reform on issues ranging from health care to energy that has endured through Republican and Democratic administrations.

"George W. has been a great advertisement for the Democratic Party, but it will take more than a change in parties in the White House to truly turn this country around," he said. "George Bush and Dick Cheney may have turned divisive politics into an art form, but they did not invent them."

Obama promised that ending the war in Iraq would be his first act as president if it is not done before then and said that he looked forward to engaging in dialogue the leaders of nations hostile to U.S. policies.

"It does not make us look tough to not talk to other countries. It makes us look arrogant," he said.

20368. jexster - 9/8/2007 12:44:10 PM

20369. jexster - 9/8/2007 12:45:24 PM

20370. jexster - 9/8/2007 1:13:39 PM

Ahnold: GOP Dying at the Box Office

20371. robertjayb - 9/8/2007 1:33:56 PM

Hagel is out...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a persistent Republican critic of the Iraq war, intends to announce on Monday he will not seek a third term, according to Republican officials.

The officials also said Hagel does not plan to run for the White House in 2008, despite earlier flirting with a candidacy.

The decision by Hagel is the latest in a string of setbacks for minority Republicans in the Senate, who must defend 22 of the 34 seats on the ballot next fall.

20372. jexster - 9/8/2007 1:36:00 PM

Fred Cuts Himself a Chunk of Gobagool


NC-Pres (R)
Sep 6 PPP (D)
Thompson 34%, Giuliani 16%, Romney 13%, McCain 7%


But it's my man Huckabee-on-the-spot..challenges the Method Actor to play "Lincoln-Douglas" debate

20373. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/8/2007 2:39:11 PM

This is a hoot . . .

20374. jexster - 9/8/2007 5:25:08 PM

Obama Wows Em in SF
LAT


Too bad Orpah the Killer whale flopped her fat black ass all over our local coverage....

20375. arkymalarky - 9/8/2007 5:38:39 PM

Hey, her endorsement's going to be great for his campaign.

And wrt Huckabee, I'm sick of MSNBC and CNN trying to push him to the front.

20376. jexster - 9/8/2007 5:55:41 PM

Keep her fat black ass in Santa Barbara, not stepping on OUR Obama coverage thank you very much

20377. jexster - 9/8/2007 5:57:22 PM

That "Vision Thing" - NOT AGAIN!

SYDNEY (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will address a war-weary American public next week to "lay out a vision" for the U.S. role in Iraq as he tries to sell his strategy in the wake of a crucial report to Congress.

20378. arkymalarky - 9/8/2007 6:50:17 PM

Hey, if you want women voting for Obama, Oprah's your man!

20379. jexster - 9/8/2007 8:19:33 PM

Gallup poll:Obama is best gen election candidate from either party

Even beats Huckabee and the other bitch from Hope

20380. jexster - 9/8/2007 8:37:13 PM

Orpah
Killer Whale (forbes)

20381. jexster - 9/8/2007 8:47:44 PM

LATimes Obama's day in the sun

Before his much-anticipated and highly exclusive fundraiser today at Oprah Winfrey's estate in Montecito, Barack Obama mingled with the masses --- or, as The Times' Tina Daunt notes, what passes for the masses in a particularly well-heeled stretch of Southern California.
Here's Daunt's initial dispatch:
"There was a decidedly more populist tone to Obama's first appearance of the day then would mark the A-list event hosted by Oprah. The crowd that began arriving about 10:30 a.m. at Santa Barbara City College for an address by the Democratic presidential hopeful about an hour later offered a cross-section of the hip beachside community. Overwhelmingly white, it ranged from fashionably turned out surfers to high-end bohemians. It also featured kids from the local middle school who were video-taping and live-blogging the event for the school's website.
"By the time Obama arrived from an overnight stay in San Francisco, the crowd had grown to around 5,000 under one of those perfectly blue Santa Barbara skies. The temperature was 75 degrees and the ocean glinted under the sun, providing the kind of backdrop money can't buy --- unless, of course, you can afford property in Santa Barbara.
"Obama surveyed the scene and quipped, 'I can tell you, city colleges in Chicago don't look like this. I wouldn't get any work done here.'
"Then, surveying his audience, he added, 'I didn't know there were any hippies left.'
"That got a big laugh, as did his rejoiner: 'That's cool.'
"From there, Obama moved into his standard stump speech. He decried the war in Iraq, attacked President Bush's domestic policies and called for an increase in the national minimum wage. He earned his biggest bursts of applause denouncing the Darfur genocide and the administration's detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"The speech complete, Obama was whisked south to Montecito for a private lunch at the gated, beachside home of human rights activist Nancy Koppelman. There, the crush around the driveway included white-shirted campaign aides and surfers (the latter were bound for the adjacent steps that lead down to the ocean)."
Daunt will be filing a story for our website later today and for Sunday's print edition on the gathering at Oprah's 42-acre spread.
The fete was expected to generate about $3 million for Obama's campaign. And, as the Chicago Tribune's Christi Parsons wrote about today, it may be just the start of the talk-show diva's efforts on behalf of her favorite candidate.
It also appears that entertainers on the East Coast don't intend to be upstaged by Hollywood types when it comes to contributing to Obama's coffers. A New York Times blog item details a Broadway bash planned for him later this month.
-- Don Frederick

20382. jexster - 9/8/2007 8:49:05 PM

Guess I'm on the d-list....just another house nigger

20383. jexster - 9/8/2007 9:00:01 PM

Good Call Arky!

CBS Poll - The Orpah Effect

20384. arkymalarky - 9/8/2007 9:59:46 PM

Kewl!

20385. jexster - 9/9/2007 10:49:21 AM

Uniter Not a Divider

Surge Sparks Dissent, Infighting

CENTCOM Commander Develops Plan for Major Cut and Run

20386. jexster - 9/9/2007 2:02:55 PM

Curious Georgie Plays Ring Around the Rosie - Again

It will be all 9/11 all the time this week, as the White House yet again synchronizes its drumbeating for the Iraq war with the anniversary of an attack that had nothing to do with Iraq. Ignore that fog and focus instead on another date whose anniversary passed yesterday without notice: Sept. 8, 2002. What happened on that Sunday five years ago is the Rosetta Stone for the administration's latest scam.

As the Iraqis Stand Down, We'll Stand Up
By Frank Rich

20387. jexster - 9/9/2007 6:54:46 PM

“Americans are sad, they’re frustrated, they’re angry and they want out. I want us out, too, but I want us out with honor.”

20388. jexster - 9/9/2007 8:00:57 PM

A Hanoi John Sampler

[via TPM]

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), this morning:

"Americans are sad, they're frustrated, they're angry, and they want out. And I understand that; there were four years of failure under Rumsfeld. As you know, I spoke out early on, in November of 2003, saying that strategy was doomed to failure."

McCain, in December 2003:

"This is a mission accomplished. They know how much influence Saddam Hussein had on the Iraqi people, how much more difficult it made to get their cooperation."

McCain, in March 2004:

"I'm confident we're on the right course."

McCain, in December 2005:

"I do think that progress is being made in a lot of Iraq. Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course. If I thought we weren't making progress, I'd be despondent."

20389. concerned - 9/9/2007 11:09:59 PM

Re. 20387 -

As opposed to your scum ilk who want Americans out of Iraq with dishonor.

20390. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/10/2007 12:03:22 AM

Hey Dipshit, the dishonor came when your reckless "scum ilk" ordered our military to invade Iraq without a good reason or a plan.

Apologizing and asking the rest of the world to help fix what Bush & Company broke is the only honorable alternative at this point -- but fools like you have too much pride and hubris to admit it -- so lets kill more young kids . . .

20391. concerned - 9/10/2007 12:17:23 AM

Hey, Whacko of Weirdness -

I take everything you say knowing that your ilk supported all the greatest mass murderers of the 20th century.

20392. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/10/2007 12:42:08 AM

The Holocaust?

20393. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/10/2007 12:52:14 AM

20394. concerned - 9/10/2007 1:18:40 AM

20395. jexster - 9/10/2007 11:06:24 AM

Are you a peter pumper?

20396. jexster - 9/10/2007 11:07:00 AM

McClatchy: Civilian Deaths Steady through Surge;
August Secret Official Toll Staggering 2,890;
Mahdi Army Continuing Ethnic Cleansing

20397. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/10/2007 11:11:59 AM

"Duhbya Begins With Duh!"

20398. jexster - 9/10/2007 11:19:51 AM

20399. jexster - 9/10/2007 11:37:59 AM

Stop The Grand Old Pigpile Railroad Job


Craig blames press for his plea

20400. jexster - 9/10/2007 11:51:56 AM

Iraqis Say Surge Is Not Working
ABC News


Barely a quarter of Iraqis say their security has improved in the past six months, a negative assessment of the surge in U.S. forces that reflects worsening public attitudes across a range of measures, even as authorities report some progress curtailing violence.

Apart from a few scattered gains, a new national survey by ABC News, the BBC and the Japanese broadcaster NHK finds deepening dissatisfaction with conditions in Iraq, lower ratings for the national government and growing rejection of the U.S. role there.

More Iraqis say security in their local area has gotten worse in the last six months than say it's gotten better, 31 percent to 24 percent, with the rest reporting no change. Far more, six in 10, say security in the country overall has worsened since the surge began, while just one in 10 sees improvement.

More directly assessing the surge itself - a measure that necessarily includes views of the United States, which are highly negative - 65 to 70 percent of Iraqis say it's worsened rather than improved security, political stability and the pace of redevelopment alike.

There are some improvements, but they're sparse and inconsistent. Thirty-eight percent in Anbar province, a focal point of the surge, now rate local security positively; none did so six months ago. In Baghdad fewer now describe themselves as feeling completely unsafe in their own neighborhoods - 58 percent, down from 84 percent. Yet other assessments of security in these locales have not improved, nor has the view nationally.

Overall, 41 percent report security as their greatest personal problem, down seven points from 48 percent in March. But there's been essentially no change in the number who call it the nation's top problem (56 percent, with an additional 28 percent citing political or military issues). And there are other problems aplenty to sour the public's outlook - lack of jobs, poor power and fuel supply, poor medical services and many more.

Big Picture

The big picture remains bleak. Six in 10 Iraqis say their own lives are going badly, and even more, 78 percent, say things are going badly for the country overall - up 13 points from last winter. Expectations have crumbled; just 23 percent see improvement for Iraq in the year ahead, down from 40 percent last winter and 69 percent in November 2005.

More than six in 10 now call the U.S.-led invasion of their country wrong, up from 52 percent last winter. Fifty-seven percent call violence against U.S. forces acceptable, up six points. And despite the uncertainties of what might follow, 47 percent now favor the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq - a 12-point rise.

In a better result for the United States, fewer now blame U.S. or coalition forces directly for the violence occurring in Iraq - 19 percent, down from 31 percent six months ago; as many (21 percent) blame al Qaeda. (Eight percent blame George W. Bush personally.)

If the United States is unpopular, others fare no better. Seventy-nine percent of Iraqis believe Iran is actively engaged in encouraging sectarian violence in Iraq, up eight points; majorities also suspect Saudi Arabia and Syria of fomenting violence. And the poll finds almost unanimous opposition to most activities of al Qaeda in Iraq; the sole exception is its attacks on U.S. and other coalition forces

20401. jexster - 9/10/2007 11:59:49 AM

[.pdf]

20402. robertjayb - 9/10/2007 12:24:51 PM

MoveOn's sophomoric headline obscures any righteous messsage they may have had.

20403. jexster - 9/10/2007 12:25:41 PM

The French have taken over Stars and Stripes


Road to nowhere
Troops clearing routes Pluto, Predator in Iraq see little improvement, find few clues

By Les Neuhaus, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, September 9, 2000

Who let them in though?
I mean you can smell a Frenchman from a 1000 yards.
Musta been an inside job.
Musta been Moveon.org

20404. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/10/2007 12:32:41 PM

Robert is right about the headline, but they nailed this obsequious little CBS whore . . .

20405. jexster - 9/10/2007 12:56:17 PM

It's an eye-catcher but it's wrong. PetRaeus has never been loyal to anything but his careerist epaulets so he couldn't betray anyone

20406. jexster - 9/10/2007 12:58:05 PM

What a ho! Needs to wash her hair too

20407. jexster - 9/10/2007 12:59:21 PM

20408. robertjayb - 9/10/2007 12:59:53 PM

Duncan Hunter just brought up the ad in the first minutes of the hearing.

20409. jexster - 9/10/2007 1:10:19 PM

See...Got our money's worth!


“If anything, it’s only gotten worse since we’ve been here,” Staff Sgt. Robert Schuelke, of Milwaukee,

The publication formerly known as Stars and Stripes
now just stripes

20410. robertjayb - 9/10/2007 1:27:53 PM

(firedoglake)

Farcical beginning. The mikes don't work. Petraeus hasn't said an audible word.

20411. jexster - 9/10/2007 2:28:35 PM

Poll: Public Doesn't Care What BeTrayUS - Still Want Out

Heavens let's not upset anyone!!

20412. jexster - 9/10/2007 2:31:57 PM

Despite the administration's efforts, fresh polls reflected significant public opposition to the war. A USA Today-Gallup poll taken in the past few days found that 60 percent of those surveyed favor setting a timetable for removing troops. Only 35 percent favor keeping the troops in Iraq until the situation improves

20413. jexster - 9/10/2007 2:38:41 PM

Enter Howard Beale

20414. jexster - 9/10/2007 2:53:01 PM

Saleh Adnan, 34, a car mechanic, also watching the broadcast, was dismissive.

"I don't think this will change anything in our country because the Americans will never leave Iraq. For us the main point is when the occupation will end," said Adnan.

"For me the main report will be the one which announces the American departure."

20415. jexster - 9/10/2007 2:55:29 PM

Bush Support for DeadEnders and Saddamites May Hasten Disintegration
Bloomberg

20416. jexster - 9/10/2007 3:47:08 PM

Redefining the BushShit

Less Talk of Victory Now

Flip-flops in the alley beat boots on the ground.
William Lind

20417. jexster - 9/10/2007 4:38:45 PM

As Barack said the other day, GWB is the best advertisement the Dems could have..Indeed that is what Hillary is benefiting from..whether from the standpoint of national security or economic prosperity, Americans were indisputably better off under Bill Clinton than George W. Bush

No matter how you slice it

Where's My Trickle?
By Paul Krugman
The New York Times


Barack also said that the Democrats will need more than Bush hatred to govern, more than nostalgia for Bill

20418. jexster - 9/10/2007 5:16:59 PM

Now isn't that convenient!


Obama scheduled to make Iraq speech in Clinton, Iowa

Brzezinski's going to be on stage

If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.

Madeline Albright
Chief Foreign Policy Adviser
Sen. Rod Ham

20419. jexster - 9/10/2007 5:46:19 PM

AP asks How did we get into this mess?


Hint: It isn't all Georgie's fault, is it Sen Rod Ham?


Villary's dispatching ButtUgly Albright to Iowa to counter Zbig's appearance

20420. jexster - 9/10/2007 7:05:08 PM

So TD, RU a peter pumper or a ho-hoppah??

NEW ORLEANS -- A former New Orleans prostitute who says she had an affair with Sen. David Vitter has passed a lie-detector test and will provide details of the four-month relationship at a press conference Tuesday, according to Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt.

Wendy Cortez, whose real name is Wendy Ellis, says she had a sexual relationship with Vitter, R-La., in 1999, when he was a state legislator.

Copies of the results of Cortez's polygraph test, which she took at Flynt's request, will be provided to reporters at the news conference at Flynt's office in Beverly Hills, Calif., Hustler said in a news release Monday.

Grand Old Pigpile Family Values



BOTH?

20421. jexster - 9/10/2007 8:45:28 PM

KOS - O in SFO

Tole ya he rocked

20422. jexster - 9/10/2007 8:50:21 PM

California Women for Obama
San Francisco 9/7/07
KPIX Video

20423. jexster - 9/11/2007 6:21:49 AM

Greenwald: Ignatius bases his entire column on the trite and fact-free claims of an anonymous "leading Democratic Party strategist." Both Ignatius and his cowardly anonymous friend believe that President Bush is on his way to doing what Democrats want -- "announcing that he will begin reducing the number of U.S. troops in Iraq this year" -- and the primary challenge for Democrats is not to get in the way of the President by giving into their loudmouth radical base and thereby constraining the Leader. Here is the rationale for this brilliant position:

That's the smart Democratic strategy, he argues, to take credit for altering the course of the war. "We have to stop saying we're going to end the war, because we can't," the strategist cautions. But he fears that congressional Democrats, pushed by an angry base, will continue to schedule votes for funding cutoffs and troop-withdrawal dates. That may appeal to the base but not to the country as a whole, the strategist fears.

Do Democratic Beltway "strategists" ever do anything but "fear"?

20424. thoughtful - 9/11/2007 8:07:49 AM

So apparently that was the whole surge strategy...add enough troops so you can reduce the number of troops and take credit for it but still keep at least as many in iraq as you had before the surge.

20425. jexster - 9/11/2007 11:26:17 AM

Well said. Let's battle about when to bring home the 3 month temporary brigades that never should have gone in the first place and debate it a year later

20426. jexster - 9/11/2007 12:33:32 PM

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans sharply challenged President Bush's top military general and ambassador in Iraq on Tuesday in a blatant demonstration of misgivings within the GOP about the protracted war.



"Are we going to continue to invest blood and treasure at the same rate we're doing now? For what?" asked Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., who supports legislation setting a deadline to bring troops home.

Blatant Sedition

20427. jexster - 9/11/2007 3:48:28 PM

May the Farce be with you

WASHINGTON - President Bush will tell the nation this week he plans to reduce the American troop presence in Iraq by about 30,000 by next summer, but will condition those and further cuts on continued progress, The Associated Press has learned.

20428. jexster - 9/11/2007 3:54:15 PM

O! Confronts BetrayUS and Betty Crock o Crap

and NOW at TPMCafe

Paul Krugman
Crank Politics

20429. jexster - 9/11/2007 4:10:48 PM

While TD is stuck in 19th Century US Political History

“The overwhelming importance of the Southern switch suggests an almost embarrassingly simple story about the political success of movement conservatism. It goes like this: thanks to their organization, the interlocking institutions that constitute the reality of the vast right-wing conspiracy, movement conservatives were able to take over the Republican Party, and move its domestic policies sharply to the right. In most of the country, this rightward shift alienated voters, who gradually moved toward the Democrats. But Republicans were nonetheless able to win presidential elections, and eventually gain control of Congress, because they were able to exploit the race issue to win political dominance of the South. End of story.”

20430. thoughtful - 9/11/2007 4:14:37 PM

Not just race issue. The key factor in the last 4 elections was the presence of a 3rd party candidate...perot in the clinton years and nader in the bush years.

key question, if bloomberg runs as an independent, will he sap more votes from the dems or the gopers?

20431. jexster - 9/11/2007 4:19:41 PM

Welcome to Camp Victory
and
May the Farce Be With You

BAGHDAD - An indirect-fire weapon struck the major U.S. headquarters outside Iraq's capital Tuesday, killing one "third-country national" and wounding 11 coalition soldiers, the U.S. command said.


It was an unusually large number of casualties at Camp Victory, a sprawling base near Baghdad International Airport that includes the headquarters of Multinational Corps-Iraq, which runs the ground war

20432. jexster - 9/11/2007 4:20:35 PM

Fundamentally Krugman's correct...3d party candidates in presidential elections have next to zero explanatory power

20433. jexster - 9/11/2007 4:27:29 PM

Grilled Gabagool



Rudy Three Pussies didn't last long..Happy 911 Rudy


Fred Ties Three Pussies

20434. jexster - 9/11/2007 4:28:49 PM

In fact T'filled Perot electing Clinton is a myth and Nader's Florida impact


Are you drunk?

20435. thoughtful - 9/12/2007 8:37:15 AM

Are you?

20436. jexster - 9/12/2007 11:40:55 AM

IraqMe Petraeus

20437. jexster - 9/12/2007 1:21:36 PM

As Bush opens secret surrender talks with Muqtada Sadr,
Obama Slams BushVille Pundits and Pols for Iraq Disaster

20438. jexster - 9/12/2007 2:05:16 PM

Sinking Like Lucca Brazzi

Rudy Three Pussies Sleeps with the Fishes

20439. thoughtful - 9/12/2007 2:55:44 PM

This is interesting, via froomkin:

Adam Nossiter writes in the New York Times: "House leaders are beginning an investigation this week of the prosecution of Don Siegelman, the former Democratic governor of Alabama who was imprisoned in June on federal corruption charges. The case could become the centerpiece of a Democratic effort to show that the Justice Department engaged in political prosecutions. . . .

"Jill Simpson, an Alabama lawyer who signed an affidavit saying she overheard a Republican political operative connect the prosecution of Mr. Siegelman to Karl Rove, will be questioned under oath this week by investigators for the House Judiciary Committee."

20440. thoughtful - 9/12/2007 3:27:01 PM

No wonder the people are so dissatisfied with congress...how can you respect a government body without a backbone? via froomkin

John Bresnahan writes for the Politico: "House Democratic leaders have decided to postpone a vote on a criminal contempt resolution against White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for several weeks, and possibly longer, according to top lawmakers and aides."

20441. jexster - 9/12/2007 3:56:21 PM

Obama Rattles Edwards
White Boy Comes Unglued

20442. jexster - 9/12/2007 4:03:53 PM

Reid Vows to Block Olson

The only way to deal with George Bush is to tell him to go f*ck himself. I have said that since he stole the election in December 2000.


Lisa Murkowski's running for re-election. Now she wants to cut and run. Now she wants a time line.

20443. jexster - 9/12/2007 4:16:57 PM

Chris Mathews is basically an idiot


Last week in the Fred Feeding Frenzy he insisted several times on one broadcast that Thompson would draw from Romney.

I kept yelling at the TV set - YOU MORON! IT's RUDY WHO'LL SINK


Obama's right to go after the Bushville Pundits and Polticos


So much for BushLeague experience.

20444. robertjayb - 9/12/2007 5:49:52 PM

$80 Oil! Bush's legacy is secure...

NEW YORK — Oil futures prices rose sharply today, briefly climbing above a record $80 a barrel after the government reported a surprisingly large drop in crude inventories and declines in gasoline supplies and refinery activity.

The report from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration suggested oil supplies are tightening as demand remains strong. That's why oil prices are rising despite OPEC's decision on Tuesday to boost crude production by 500,000 barrels per day this fall, analysts said.

20445. robertjayb - 9/12/2007 5:58:41 PM

Senator Warner, please move over for Senator Warner...

(AP)(TPM)--Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner intends to run for the Senate next year, Democratic officials said Wednesday, assuring his party a competitive race for a seat long in Republican hands.

20446. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/12/2007 5:59:27 PM

And the new Bush lawn-jockey in Iraq has secured their oil fields for future exploitation.

20447. jexster - 9/12/2007 7:08:39 PM

Full Text of Obama's Iraq Speech, Clinton IA [KOS]

20448. jexster - 9/12/2007 7:13:01 PM

Run Lisa Run
See Lisa Cut and Run


Wonder why Lisa Murkowski loves withdrawal timetables all of a sudden?


Novak: GOP Could Lose Five or More Senate Seats Next Year

20449. jexster - 9/12/2007 7:21:41 PM

A few months ago, I met a woman who told me her nephew was leaving for Iraq. As she started to tell me about how much she’d miss him and how worried she was about him, she began to cry. "I can’t breathe," she said. "I want to know when I am going to be able to breathe again."

I have her on my mind when I think about what we’ve gone through as a country and where we need to go. Because we’ve been holding our breath over Iraq for five years. As we go through yet another debate about yet another phase of this misguided war, we’ve got a familiar feeling. Again, we’re told that progress is upon us. Again, we’re asked to hold our breath a little longer. Again, we’re reminded of what’s gone wrong with our policies and our politics....


Martin Luther King once stood up at Riverside Church and said, “In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late.” We are too late to stop a war that should never have been fought; too late to undo the pain of battle, the anguish of so many families, or the price of the fight; too late to redo the years of division and distraction at home and abroad.

But I’m here today because it’s not too late to come together as Americans. Because we’re not going to be able to deal with the challenges that confront us until we end this war. What we can do is say that we will not be prisoners of uncertainty. That we reject the conventional thinking that led us into Iraq and that didn’t ask hard questions until it was too late. What we can say is that we are ready for something new and something bold and something principled.

It’s time for us to breathe again. That begins with ending this war – but it does not end there. It’s time reclaim our foreign policy. It’s time to reclaim our politics. And it’s time to lead this country – and this world – again, to a new dawn of peace and unity.

Obama,
Clinton IA

20450. jexster - 9/12/2007 11:18:36 PM

The Anti-War Primary Now Has a Name - OBAMA
DailyKos

20451. jexster - 9/13/2007 12:04:06 AM

The Pigpile's treatin Old Three Pussies like a rancid hunk of gabagool!!!


Fred Opens Massive Lead in Georgia

Guess he didn't get in too late!

Obama's right. Those BushVille chattering nattering classes are a bad joke

20452. OhioSTOPAS - 9/13/2007 7:48:26 AM

How ridiculous and offensive it is for media right-wingers to assert that it's wrong for U.S. Senators to question the accuracy of a General's (questionable) statements. Is he above inquiry and criticism because of his distinguished military record? (Funny, Max Cleland and John Kerry weren't.)

20453. jexster - 9/13/2007 8:17:49 AM

Admiral Fallon got it right

20454. jexster - 9/13/2007 8:29:37 AM

Your Krony Kleptocracy at Work

Bircher and Bushevik Hunt Inks Oil Deal with Kurds, Sinks Iraq Oil Law

Those leeches are gonna suck us as dry as they can before that little shit leaves office

20455. jexster - 9/13/2007 1:27:52 PM

Arky!


Camp Obama - Marshall Ganz, Buffy Wicks Introduction

20456. jexster - 9/13/2007 2:20:10 PM

The shit don't flush no mo

Ah for the 911 trifecta campaigns of yesteryear!

PetRaeus Performances Haven't Moved Public Opinion One Bit
Poll

20457. robertjayb - 9/13/2007 2:47:07 PM

President Petraeus? Iraqi says told of ambition...

(The Independent)---The US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, expressed long-term interest in running for the US presidency when he was stationed in Baghdad, according to a senior Iraqi official who knew him at that time.

Sabah Khadim, then a senior adviser at Iraq's Interior Ministry, says General Petraeus discussed with him his ambition when the general was head of training and recruitment of the Iraqi army in 2004-05.

"I asked him if he was planning to run in 2008 and he said, 'No, that would be too soon'," Mr Khadim, who now lives in London, said.

20458. jexster - 9/13/2007 3:30:32 PM

Even more interesting, [the study] finds that of all the Presidential candidates, the one receiving the most military money right now is Barack Obama, who opposed the war from the beginning (though his relative youth could be a key factor, the study speculates).

Military Contributions to Democrats Surge

"In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late.”

* Martin Luther King

20459. thoughtful - 9/13/2007 3:31:21 PM

Vote to impeach bush

20460. jexster - 9/13/2007 3:46:17 PM

John Boner says 1 trillion dollars and 30,000 US casualties are a "small price".


The Los Angeles Times has the real world take



Another $100 billion for Iraq?

Eleven more months of surge would mean $100 billion that could be better spent elsewhere.

20461. jexster - 9/13/2007 6:42:32 PM

Edwards Ad Running on MSNBC

20462. jexster - 9/13/2007 6:44:38 PM

Equal Rights=Equal Time for the Colored Man

20463. jexster - 9/14/2007 11:46:43 AM

Facing Tough Reelection Bids, GOP Moderates React With Concern

Get it? Get it?

20464. jexster - 9/14/2007 11:47:28 AM

Actually they are "gravely Concerned"

Get it
Get it?????

20465. jexster - 9/14/2007 11:52:52 AM

Deceptive or Delusional?
Bush's appalling Iraq speech.
By Fred Kaplan

"Do you think Bush lives in that world or just tries to sell it?"
Chris Mathews

20466. jexster - 9/14/2007 1:29:40 PM

The Eye of Newt, Head for Fred

Republicans Need to Dump Bush - Gingrich

20467. robertjayb - 9/14/2007 2:40:50 PM

Shaheen to face Sununu for NH senate seat...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- Former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen announced Friday that she will run again for the U.S. Senate seat that Republican John Sununu beat her out for in 2002.

In finally entering the race, Shaheen immediately becomes the favorite among the four Democrats seeking the job.

20468. robertjayb - 9/14/2007 2:41:34 PM

oop

20469. jexster - 9/14/2007 2:46:08 PM

Dumb Texican..go back to Mexico where you came from

20470. robertjayb - 9/14/2007 3:22:06 PM

Another one bites the dust...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- The former head of an oil field services company admitted Friday that he had employees work for several months on remodeling the home of Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

Ex-VECO Corp. CEO Bill Allen discussed the work while testifying in the corruption trial of former state House Speaker Pete Kott.

20471. jexster - 9/14/2007 6:23:46 PM

Way to run Rudy run!

"She's changed now that she's running for President"

Click To Play

20472. robertjayb - 9/14/2007 6:30:17 PM

Condi a stealth dyke?

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice co-owned a home and shared a line of credit with another woman, according to Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler, who reveals the information in his new book, The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy.


According to the book, Rice owns a home together with Randy Bean, a documentary filmmaker who once worked with Bill Moyers. Kessler made the discovery by looking through real estate records. The home is located in Palo Alto, California.

Bean explains the joint ownership and line of credit in the book by saying she had medical bills which left her financially drained and Rice helped her by co-purchasing the house along with a third person, Coit Blacker, a Stanford professor. Blacker is openly gay.

20473. jexster - 9/14/2007 6:31:04 PM

Stormin Norman's up for re-election

Coleman Calls For Withdrawal Of Half The Troops — In Three Years>Coleman Calls for Withdrawal of 1/2 troops - in three years

20474. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/15/2007 11:53:58 PM

Will the Democrats Betray Us?

By FRANK RICH
SIR, I don't know, actually": The fact that America's surrogate commander in chief, David Petraeus, could not say whether the war in Iraq is making America safer was all you needed to take away from last week's festivities in Washington. Everything else was a verbal quagmire, as administration spin and senatorial preening fought to a numbing standoff.

Not that many Americans were watching. The country knew going in that the White House would win its latest campaign to stay its course of indefinitely shoveling our troops and treasure into the bottomless pit of Iraq. The only troops coming home alive or with their limbs intact in President Bush's troop "reduction" are those who were scheduled to be withdrawn by April anyway. Otherwise the president would have had to extend combat tours yet again, mobilize more reserves or bring back the draft.

On the sixth anniversary of the day that did not change everything, General Petraeus couldn't say we are safer because he knows we are not. Last Sunday, Michael Scheuer, the former chief of the C.I.A.'s Osama bin Laden unit, explained why. He wrote in The Daily News that Al Qaeda, under the de facto protection of Pervez Musharraf, is "on balance" more threatening today that it was on 9/11. And as goes Pakistan, so goes Afghanistan. On Tuesday, just as the Senate hearings began, Lisa Myers of NBC News reported on a Taliban camp near Kabul in an area nominally controlled by the Afghan government we installed. It is training bomb makers to attack America.

Little of this registered in or beyond the Beltway. New bin Laden tapes and the latest 9/11 memorial rites notwithstanding, we're back in a 9/10 mind-set. Bin Laden, said Frances Townsend, the top White House homeland security official, "is virtually impotent." Karen Hughes, the Bush crony in charge of America's P.R. in the jihadists' world, recently held a press conference anointing Cal Ripken Jr. our international "special sports envoy." We are once more sleepwalking through history, fiddling while the Qaeda not in Iraq prepares to burn.

This is why the parallels between Vietnam and Iraq, including those more accurate than Mr. Bush's recent false analogies, can take us only so far. Our situation is graver than it was during Vietnam.

Certainly there were some eerie symmetries between General Petraeus's sales pitch last week and its often-noted historical antecedent: Gen. William Westmoreland's similar mission for L.B.J. before Congress on April 28, 1967. Westmoreland, too, refused to acknowledge that our troops were caught in a civil war. He spoke as well of the "repeated successes" of the American-trained South Vietnamese military and ticked off its growing number of combat-ready battalions. "The strategy we're following at this time is the proper one," the general assured America, and "is producing results."

Those fabulous results delayed our final departure from Vietnam for another eight years — just short of the nine to 10 years General Petraeus has said may be needed for a counterinsurgency in Iraq. But there's a crucial difference between the Westmoreland show of 1967 and the 2007 revival by General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Westmoreland played to a full and largely enthusiastic house. Most Americans still supported the war in Vietnam and trusted him; so did all but a few members of Congress, regardless of party. All three networks pre-empted their midday programming for Westmoreland's Congressional appearance.

Our Iraq commander, by contrast, appeared before a divided and stalemated Congress just as an ABC News-Washington Post poll found that most Americans believed he would overhype progress in Iraq. No network interrupted a soap opera for his testimony. On cable the hearings fought for coverage with Britney Spears's latest self-immolation and the fate of Madeleine McCann, our latest JonBenet Ramsey stand-in.

20475. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/15/2007 11:54:14 PM

General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker could grab an hour of prime television time only by slinking into the safe foxhole of Fox News, where Brit Hume chaperoned them on a gloomy, bunkerlike set before an audience of merely 1.5 million true believers. Their "Briefing for America," as Fox titled it, was all too fittingly interrupted early on for a commercial promising pharmaceutical relief from erectile dysfunction.

Even if military "victory" were achievable in Iraq, America could not win a war abandoned by its own citizens. The evaporation of that support was ratified by voters last November. For that, they were rewarded with the "surge." Now their mood has turned darker. Americans have not merely abandoned the war; they don't want to hear anything that might remind them of it, or of war in general. Katie Couric's much-promoted weeklong visit to the front produced ratings matching the CBS newscast's all-time low. Angelina Jolie's movie about Daniel Pearl sank without a trace. Even Clint Eastwood's wildly acclaimed movies about World War II went begging. Over its latest season, "24" lost a third of its viewers, just as Mr. Bush did between January's prime-time address and last week's.

You can't blame the public for changing the channel. People realize that the president's real "plan for victory" is to let his successor clean up the mess. They don't want to see American troops dying for that cause, but what can be done? Americans voted the G.O.P. out of power in Congress; a clear majority consistently tell pollsters they want out of Iraq. And still every day is Groundhog Day. Our America, unlike Vietnam-era America, is more often resigned than angry. Though the latest New York Times-CBS News poll finds that only 5 percent trust the president to wrap up the war, the figure for the (barely) Democratic-controlled Congress, 21 percent, is an almost-as-resounding vote of no confidence.

Last week Democrats often earned that rating, especially those running for president. It is true that they do not have the votes to overcome a Bush veto of any war legislation. But that doesn't mean the Democrats have to go on holiday. Few used their time to cross-examine General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker on their disingenuous talking points, choosing instead to regurgitate stump sentiments or ask uncoordinated, redundant questions. It's telling that the one question that drew blood — are we safer? — was asked by a Republican, John Warner, who is retiring from the Senate.

Americans are looking for leadership, somewhere, anywhere. At least one of the Democratic presidential contenders might have shown the guts to soundly slap the "General Betray-Us" headline on the ad placed by MoveOn.org in The Times, if only to deflate a counterproductive distraction. This left-wing brand of juvenile name-calling is as witless as the "Defeatocrats" and "cut and run" McCarthyism from the right; it at once undermined the serious charges against the data in the Petraeus progress report (including those charges in the same MoveOn ad) and allowed the war's cheerleaders to hyperventilate about a sideshow. "General Betray-Us" gave Republicans a furlough to avoid ownership of an Iraq policy that now has us supporting both sides of the Shiite-vs.-Sunni blood bath while simultaneously shutting America's doors on the millions of Iraqi refugees the blood bath has so far created.

It's also past time for the Democratic presidential candidates to stop getting bogged down in bickering about who has the faster timeline for withdrawal or the more enforceable deadline. Every one of these plans is academic anyway as long as Mr. Bush has a veto pen. The security of America is more important — dare one say it? — than trying to outpander one another in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The Democratic presidential candidates in the Senate need all the unity and focus they can muster to move this story forward, and that starts with the two marquee draws, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It's essential to turn up the heat full time in Washington for any and every legislative roadblock to administration policy that they and their peers can induce principled or frightened Republicans to endorse.

They should summon the new chief of central command (and General Petraeus's boss), Adm. William Fallon, for tough questioning; he is reportedly concerned about our lapsed military readiness should trouble strike beyond Iraq. And why not grill the Joint Chiefs and those half-dozen or so generals who turned down the White House post of "war czar" last fall? The war should be front and center in Congress every day.

Mr. Bush, confident that he got away with repackaging the same bankrupt policies with a nonsensical new slogan ("Return on Success") Thursday night, is counting on the public's continued apathy as he kicks the can down the road and bides his time until Jan. 20, 2009; he, after all, has nothing more to lose. The job for real leaders is to wake up America to the urgent reality. We can't afford to punt until Inauguration Day in a war that each day drains America of resources and will. Our national security can't be held hostage indefinitely to a president's narcissistic need to compound his errors rather than admit them.

The enemy votes, too. Cataclysmic events on the ground in Iraq, including Thursday's murder of the Sunni tribal leader Mr. Bush embraced two weeks ago as a symbol of hope, have never arrived according to this administration's optimistic timetable. Nor have major Qaeda attacks in the West. It's national suicide to entertain the daydream that they will start doing so now.

20476. jexster - 9/16/2007 1:05:18 AM

Concerned that his pack of losers want to start two more fucking wars!


Lose five
Start two more

20477. jexster - 9/16/2007 1:06:23 AM

Concerned "and"


The usual crowd of liars, crackpots, and mavens of disaster.


"Return on success" they call it

20478. robertjayb - 9/16/2007 3:18:29 PM

Lincoln Chafee has left the GOP...

PROVIDENCE — Lincoln D. Chafee, who lost his Senate seat in the wave of anti-Republican sentiment in last November’s election, said yesterday that he has left the party.
...............................................

Chafee’s departure is another step in the waning of the strain of moderate Republicanism that was once a winning political philosophy from Rhode Island and Connecticut to the Canadian border. For the first time since the Civil War, the six New England states combined now have only one Republican U.S. House member, Connecticut’s Christopher Shays.

20479. robertjayb - 9/16/2007 7:24:55 PM

New AG...

WASHINGTON — President Bush has settled on Michael B. Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York, to replace Alberto Gonzales as attorney general and will announce his selection Monday, a source familiar with the president's decision said Sunday evening.

Mukasey, who has handled terrorist cases in the U.S. legal system for more than a decade, would become the nation's top law enforcement officer.

The 66-year-old New York native, who is a legal adviser to GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, would take charge of a Justice Department where morale is low following months of investigations into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and Gonzales' sworn testimony on the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program.

20480. jexster - 9/16/2007 8:15:08 PM

Of course, Cunnilingus Rice drinks from the furry bowl.

Repulsive isn't it!

20481. concerned - 9/17/2007 10:59:16 AM

Doesn't this big guy look a lot like Michael Moore?

20482. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/17/2007 11:14:12 AM

No, it looks more like Denny Hastert and, being only concerned with its own wants--just like you, con-man!

20483. thoughtful - 9/17/2007 12:30:35 PM

#20471...you know obama must be salivating over that ad.

20484. wonkers2 - 9/17/2007 5:25:57 PM

Greenspan is a Liar and a Fraud

20485. jexster - 9/17/2007 6:38:29 PM

T'filled...I have already suggested that the ABC candidates use the first part of Rudy's ad in a blast at Chillary's so called "experience"

Send the bitch back for more "seasoning"


BTW...Obama has his phone bank software up..dry run is calling the 300,000 supporter list re: O's Iraq Speech

20486. jexster - 9/17/2007 7:11:37 PM

Hanoi John's PTSD is acting up. Alzheimer's too.

Probably forgot to take his aricept McCain: "Throw MoveOn.org Out of the Country"

20487. jexster - 9/17/2007 7:14:05 PM

But at least he's campaigning. DeadHead Fred hasn't got a single public appearance on his schedule this week


Guess the GOP nomination isn't worth a pitcher of warm spit. "none of the above" still holds the lead

20488. jexster - 9/17/2007 7:16:01 PM

YO WONKSTER

This bud's for you

Women for the NegrO SFO Kickoff..best stump speech I have ever heard

20489. jexster - 9/17/2007 8:26:03 PM

Hanoi John Has Lost His Mind


Warns of emerging al-Maliki/Al-Qaeda alliance

20490. jexster - 9/18/2007 3:33:07 AM

City wide campaign council convenes Friday..we have the Voter Activation network and online phone bank software


Ready to rumble Billary bitch!


Our little group, "tables" outside the Ferry Building on Saturdays registering voters and selling Obama swag for 2 bucks/ea

We do 130-150 bucks in 3-4 hours! 50% profit for the coordinating team CD8 Fline.....gotta Chinaman running it

20491. jexster - 9/18/2007 10:53:02 AM

Boy's Got a Pair

But are they big enough for him to sit under the "whites only" tree in Jena Lurziana????



Obama Goes to Wall Street

NEW YORK - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told Wall Street investors Monday that several of them have been too focused on their own gain at the expense of struggling Americans and echoed Franklin Delano Roosevelt's call for a "reappraisal of values."


Obama prides himself on delivering tough messages directly to the source, and his address at the NASDAQ Marketsite was another example. He said a "what's good for me is good enough" mentality has crept into parts of the business world while working men and women toil longer hours and still struggle to pay for health care, tuition and taxes.

"If we are honest, I think we must admit that those who have benefited from the new global marketplace — and that includes almost everyone in this room — have not always concerned themselves with the losers in this new economy," the Illinois senator said.

"The danger with this mentality isn't just that it offends our morals, it's that it endangers our markets," Obama said.

Economic experts including former Commerce secretary Bill Daley, former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson and University of Chicago economist Austan D. Goolsbee helped Obama with the speech, which risks alienating some Wall Street supporters. But Obama said in a recent interview with The Associated Press that he is determined not just to campaign by telling people what they want to hear, but to win support for an agenda for change.

20492. jexster - 9/18/2007 1:23:17 PM

Same Old Pigs at the Trough

Same Old Slop


Bush-Clinton-Bush- you have GOT to be kidding me!


Edward's Blasts Shillary's Lobbyist Fundraising Luncheon

20493. jexster - 9/18/2007 1:49:50 PM

WHillary Rod Ham - Whore to the Lieberman/Likud Wing of the Democratic Party

20494. robertjayb - 9/18/2007 2:23:08 PM

Here comes Henry---Going after State Dept...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 — A top House Democrat has issued an unusually strongly worded letter alleging that the State Department inspector general has interfered repeatedly with investigations into fraud and abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that he had done so “to protect the State Department and the White House from political embarrassment.”

The letter, from Representative Henry Waxman of California, described allegations against the inspector general, Howard Krongard, that Mr. Waxman said covered all major divisions of the inspector general’s office investigations, audits and inspections. It said the assertions came from several current and former employees of that office, who buttressed their charges with e-mail messages.

The letter said that the staff complaints followed Mr. Krongard’s testimony on July 26 to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which Mr. Waxman heads. Some of the complainants had sought “whistleblower” status, which protects government employees who report malfeasance from being punished for doing so. Other allegations came from two former senior officials, the committee said.

20495. jexster - 9/18/2007 3:11:37 PM

20496. jexster - 9/18/2007 8:50:25 PM

* Clinton sees lessons in past failure

“Fools say that they learn from experience. I prefer to learn by other people’s experience.”
Bismarck

20497. concerned - 9/19/2007 1:25:41 AM

Harry Reid has proved that he's one stupid motherfucker.

20498. jexster - 9/19/2007 7:53:14 AM

Talk about stoopid, the Hucksters can't even keep their lies straight any more

Newly Released MNF Document Contradicts Petraeus's Slurge Assertions


He's the fucking CO!


Well, Little Georgie sure plowed through that 911 trifecta jackpot....not a dime left

20499. concerned - 9/19/2007 2:08:00 PM

Worst Congress Ever!!! Approval Rating Drops to 11%, George W. Bush Approval Rating Margin Over Congress Surges to 163%

Looks like my prediction is being realized that Peloser's/Reid's Congress approval rating is dropping or has already dropped to her shoe size, judging by the estimated size of her mouth in photographs.

20500. concerned - 9/19/2007 2:17:48 PM

Worst Congress Ever!!!

11%11%11%11%11%11%

20501. concerned - 9/19/2007 2:19:43 PM

Should we impeach the Democrat Party?

20502. jexster - 9/19/2007 2:21:58 PM

Harry Reid has proved that he's one stupid motherfucker.


Must be doing something right

20503. jexster - 9/19/2007 2:25:11 PM

20500
GOP loses another to retirement



GOP retirements are dimming already long chances of recapturing control of Congress in 2008.

20504. concerned - 9/19/2007 2:30:18 PM

Considering that Zogby weights his polls to favor the Left and the 3% margin of error, chances are that the real Congressional approval rating is already in SINGLE DIGITS.

Congrats, jexster. You guys are really good for shit, that is.

20505. jexster - 9/19/2007 2:42:18 PM

Larry Craig's back at work and Bob Novak is predicting a 5 seat Pigpile Senate loss - minimum

Considering that Bob Novak "weights his polls to favor the Right"


Got milk?



The Republicans are the last thing the democratic party needs to worry about

20506. jexster - 9/19/2007 2:45:30 PM

Worst president in US History and his Congressional lackeys and crooks....the politics of upheaval has arrived and you still ain't got game TD


Doom and Gloom in Novak Land


As I said, the democrats needn't be Concerned

20507. concerned - 9/19/2007 2:46:29 PM

Not if the Democrats stay home in droves, and they will, the way this Congress is shaping up.

Look at the bright side, jexster. Usually unpopular Congresses are actually doing something. Peloser, Reid & Co. have perfected that formula - they've accomplished nothing yet, less than a year into power, they are by far the most unpopular Congress ever!

20508. concerned - 9/19/2007 2:47:16 PM

Look at the bright side, jexster. Usually unpopular Congresses are actually doing something. Peloser, Reid & Co. have perfected that formula - they've accomplished nothing, yet less than a year into power, they are by far the most unpopular Congress ever!

20509. jexster - 9/19/2007 2:47:28 PM

Working on bumper stickers

Dump the Fifty Fillibuster Congress

20510. concerned - 9/19/2007 2:50:28 PM

Jesse Jackson is saying Hussein acts 'too white'.

20511. concerned - 9/19/2007 2:57:36 PM

Re. 20509 -

I like this one:

From 'Six in '06' to 'One and Done'

20512. jexster - 9/19/2007 3:04:36 PM

Osama to you



Oprah's calling Jesse

Biden said he was the clean nigger

20513. jexster - 9/19/2007 3:05:23 PM

20514. jexster - 9/19/2007 3:06:30 PM

20515. jexster - 9/19/2007 3:10:53 PM

He could almost sit under the white tree with the Republicans

20516. thoughtful - 9/19/2007 3:39:40 PM

I so enjoy froomkin. From today:

And Pew once again asked an open-ended question, asking respondents for the word that best describes the situation in Iraq these days.

The most frequently volunteered expressions were mess, bad, terrible, sad, horrible, disaster, hopeless, chaos, confused, disappointing, bring troops home, disgusting, tragic and unfortunate.

20517. thoughtful - 9/19/2007 3:44:44 PM

Also from froomkin, I'm just not sure how to take this one:

But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is said to be putting her foot down: "The Sunday Telegraph has been told that Mr Bush has privately promised her that he would consult 'meaningfully' with Congressional leaders of both parties before any military action against Iran on the understanding that Miss Rice would resign if this did not happen."

I'm glad to see rice has cajones, if this is true, but bush has about a 0% chance of following through on this promise, in which case she'd go, which could potentially be a good or a really bad thing. Can you see wolfowitz as sec state?

20518. jexster - 9/19/2007 4:08:24 PM

Yeah that Pew poll is excellent..that's why the last thing Dems in Congress have to worry about is public revulsion with Bushville

The Dems need to worry about Sen Rod Ham....the answer GOP's prayers

20519. thoughtful - 9/19/2007 4:09:13 PM

concerned, re your 11%, you do realize that the reason why so many people are unhappy with congress is because it isn't doing what it was elected to do, namely get us out of iraq. And the reason why it isn't doing what it was elected to do is because it is running such a slim margin majority (esp given lieberman and johnson in the senate) that it is unable to enact even legislation that suggests a possibility of a timetable for withdrawal. The gopers won't sign on so congress is still stuck. no wonder people are unhappy!

20520. jexster - 9/19/2007 4:16:21 PM

Support the troops?

Not the Grand Old Pigpile
They'd rather talk about it in the Raygun National Airport mens' rooms


GOP Opposes Rest for Troops

20521. jexster - 9/19/2007 4:44:14 PM

Another Fillibuster

The Pigpile just blocked a Democratic attempt to restore the fundamental constitutional right of habeas corpus even though it had majority support

20522. jexster - 9/19/2007 4:44:35 PM

Wonder how Larry Craig voted?

20523. jexster - 9/19/2007 5:05:29 PM

Edwards Rips Sen Rod Ham

"a corrupt campaign" Edwards blasts Shrillary for holding a fundraiser to introduce lobbyists to legislators

A colored boy might be shy about boinking a white bitch

Edwards isn't

20524. thoughtful - 9/19/2007 5:17:31 PM

20520...whoever that interviewer was should fired. Especially when you only have 3 min to question someone, you should let them talk. I think she interrupted him or talked over him more than she let him talk. she must have attended the chris matthews school of interviewing. no one interviews like the i-man.

20525. jexster - 9/19/2007 5:20:18 PM

Thanks to the PC Police, Lt.Wonkers commanding, Imus be imprisoned

FREE IMUS
HANG OJ
JAIL THE JENA 6

20526. jexster - 9/19/2007 5:22:46 PM

Larry Craig's not the only turd in the GOP toilet

20527. concerned - 9/19/2007 5:54:29 PM

Re. 20521 -

jexster -

Please learn what habeas corpus is before posting on the subject.

20528. jexster - 9/19/2007 6:12:10 PM

Grand Old Pigpile Shows True Colors

and they ain't red, white, blue



The Senate blocked legislation Wednesday that would have regulated the amount of time troops spent in combat, a blow for Democrats struggling to challenge President Bush's Iraq policies.

The 56-44 vote was four votes short of reaching the 60 needed to cut off debate. It was the second time in as many months that the bill, sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., was sidetracked. In July, a similar measure fell four votes short of advancing.

20529. jexster - 9/19/2007 6:12:56 PM

Thank you TD, I've practiced law for 30 years.

When I want your legal advice, I'll be sure and ask for it

20530. Max Macks - 9/19/2007 7:20:42 PM

I guess Harry Reid is a good man , etc.

but he makes such a weak impression when he speaks.

I wish they had a better speaker as Maj.Leader of
the Senate.

20531. jexster - 9/19/2007 7:23:57 PM

If he makes TD mad you know he's kickin ass!


Speaking of Grand Old Pigpiles of slime....Seems that Jesse Jackson never criticized Obama

Seems that was a lie another lynching by the Vast Republican Right Wing Slime Conspiracy

KKK South Carolina Klavern

20532. jexster - 9/19/2007 7:48:20 PM

Like dying flies on poisoned pig shit


Like Flies

Scandal-tarred Rep. Weller (R) to retire.

20533. jexster - 9/19/2007 8:37:21 PM

True Stench

Martinez: Resting the Troops is Demeaning

Following the vote on the Webb Amendment, Sen. John McCain took to the floor and praised the high level of debate in the Senate over the measure. Perhaps he missed the speech by RNC Chairman and Florida Sen. Mel Martinez: "I think we would demean their service if we were to say to them that there had to be a parity between the time in service out of the country and the time at home."

--David Kurtz

20534. jexster - 9/19/2007 8:42:10 PM

Last month the Pigpile's Presidential field told the Hispanics to fuck off

Today the GOP candidates unanimously spurned a debate invitation at a black college


The South shall rise again




No Democrats allowed under that tree

20535. jexster - 9/20/2007 12:16:50 AM

Tejas Oh Tejas
All hail the Great State

George W.
Second Inaugural
Austin

20536. jexster - 9/20/2007 12:27:24 AM

Wonder why the USA is losing????


Texas has paid a price for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More Texans than people from any other state have served in those wars. From September 2001 through July 2007, 171,335 active-duty service members and 23,906 National Guard troops and reservists from Texas have been deployed with Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, according to data provided to Salon by the Department of Defense


and George W. Bush AWOL Commander in Chief???

Lyndon Johnson?

John Bell Hood?


Remember the Alamo anyone?


Cowboy: "Sir! Texas, Sir!"
Gny. Sgt. Hartman, Drill Instructor: "Holy dog bleep! Texas? Only steers and queers come from Texas, Private Cowboy. And you don't look much like a steer to me so that kinda narrows it down. Do you suck dicks?"
Cowboy: "Sir! No Sir!"
Gny. Sgt. Hartman, Drill Instructor: "Are you a peter puffer?"
Cowboy: "Sir! No Sir!"
Gny. Sgt. Hartman, Drill Instructor: "I'll bet you're the kinda guy that would bleep a person in the ass and not even have the bleepdamn common courtesy to give him a reach-around. I'll be watching you."

20537. jexster - 9/20/2007 12:32:05 AM

Is Concerned a peter puffer?

How about the Ace of Spades?

I KNOW 109109 could "suck a golf ball through a garden hose" and AlDavis could too..when he had teeth

20538. jexster - 9/20/2007 12:43:02 AM

The 11% Congress

Filibustered TWO bills with majority support in one cay.

That puts them over 50 bills filibustered and the first session isn't even over.

I say THROW THE REST OF THE BUMS OUT

but keep Larry Craig...somewhere out there there's a man in a bathroom stall just waiting to do a US Senator

20539. jexster - 9/20/2007 1:25:15 AM

My bad....The Worst Congress and the Worst President Ever

09.19.07 -- 11:53PM // link
Filibuster: The Pachyderms' Club

Senate Republicans killed three major measures via filibuster threats today: habeas corpus for enemy combatants, a House member for DC, and the Webb Amendment on troop rotations. It is part of an unprecedented use of the filibuster by Senate Republicans in the 110th Congress. I don't use "unprecedented" lightly. McClatchy ran the numbers, as we noted back in July (thanks to Kevin Drum for the reminder). At that time, Republicans were on pace this term to nearly triple the previous record high for the use the filibuster in the modern era. It's worth taking a look.

--David Kurtz

20540. concerned - 9/20/2007 12:21:31 PM

No, polls say Jimmuh Cahtuh was the worst president ever. He came in at about 22% for a while during his presiduncy.

20541. concerned - 9/20/2007 12:22:49 PM

habeas corpus for enemy combatants

jexster finally quotes a cite that doesn't lie about it.

20542. jexster - 9/20/2007 12:25:27 PM

Worst President Ever

Eye of Newt
Gringrich - Give Me 30 Million and I'll Save You

20543. concerned - 9/20/2007 12:26:16 PM

Re. 20539 -

When the Republicans controlled Congress, Democrats used the filibuster without restraint. Why is this guy crying about it now?

20544. concerned - 9/20/2007 12:27:11 PM

Re. 20537 -

Never 'puffed a peter' in my life.

20545. concerned - 9/20/2007 12:28:32 PM

I never indulged in anal sex of any sort, either.

Now jexster knows.

20546. jexster - 9/20/2007 12:29:26 PM

If the Democrats used the filibuster "without restraint" why are the Republicans using it THREE TIMES more than any other Congress in History?


That was before yesterday's astonishing THREE

Flush the Turd Blossoms Nixon Yellow, Bush RED,Raygun Blue

20547. concerned - 9/20/2007 12:33:29 PM

Dan Rather Sues CBS, Seeking To 'Restore His Reputation'

Hey, Dan, what about George W. Bush's reputation? Maybe he should sue your rotten ass.

Maybe Dan and OJ can collaborate on their next book.

One of the forged memos Rather staked his reputation on, typed on "Word '73":

20548. concerned - 9/20/2007 12:35:28 PM

Re 20546 -

The Republicans have not used the filibuster (note correct spelling, jexster) "THREE TIMES more than any other Congress in History", you lying little turdball.

20549. jexster - 9/20/2007 12:49:10 PM

Eat shit

20550. jexster - 9/20/2007 12:51:45 PM

WASHINGTON — This year Senate Republicans are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever before, a pattern that's rooted in — and could increase — the pettiness and dysfunction in Congress.


Filibusters are most effective at the end of sessions and we have two of those to come.


They just did another one.

20551. thoughtful - 9/20/2007 12:52:45 PM

waste of time to argue about points of fact.

20552. thoughtful - 9/20/2007 12:53:38 PM

jex, you beat me.

Of course my response was far more genteel.

20553. jexster - 9/20/2007 12:56:01 PM

That's cause you're a beeyatch!


Sue me Wonk Sharpton

20554. jexster - 9/20/2007 1:00:08 PM

Brings back memories. We had a ton back in the day 73-78


But then men were men not bathroom sex queens. When they filibustered I had a ton of work to do covering the floor because filibusters, used as a vehicle as much to force changes as kill bills. would go on and on and compromises come and go and they'd even filibuster amendments to bills being filibustered..once at least as I recall - involves sandbagging unanimous consent


Those were the days of men not BushLeague bitches

20555. jexster - 9/20/2007 1:33:19 PM

Holy dog shit Private Cowboy...Senator Toilet hasn't left the building

No surprise that the Euro has reached an all time high against the dollar but one Canadian dollar = one USD?!?!?!?


The Eagle Has Crash Landed - Heckuva Job Georgie


The United States in decline? Few people today would believe this assertion. The only ones who do are the U.S. hawks, who argue vociferously for policies to reverse the decline. This belief that the end of U.S. hegemony has already begun does not follow from the vulnerability that became apparent to all on September 11, 2001. In fact, the United States has been fading as a global power since the 1970s, and the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks has merely accelerated this decline. To understand why the so-called Pax Americana is on the wane requires examining the geopolitics of the 20th century, particularly of the century's final three decades. This exercise uncovers a simple and inescapable conclusion: The economic, political, and military factors that contributed to U.S. hegemony are the same factors that will inexorably produce the coming U.S. decline.

20556. jexster - 9/20/2007 1:41:14 PM

Running on Rod Ham's Experience

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd Thursday criticized rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's rollout of her health care plan, saying she had mismanaged her effort to reshape the health care system as first lady, resulting in a major policy debacle.

Like I've been saying all over the internet and no one has been able to expand my list of Rod Ham's experiences beyond:

1. Sponsor Great Health Care Debacle 1993
2. Co Sponsor GOP takeover of Congress
3. Chambermaid, Lincoln Bedroom
4. Co Sponsor Greatest Strategic Disaster in US History 2002-2006

20557. jexster - 9/20/2007 1:42:54 PM

Sad thing is, that the Worst President in US History is making 60% approval Bill look like Abraham Lincoln or some such


Longing for Bill is the foundation of Brunehilde's support

20558. concerned - 9/20/2007 2:04:26 PM

Don't worry. Jimmuh Cahtuh is long gone from office. Wrt the Pantload, he was earning approval points from Democrats for the same behavior that got him impeached.

20559. concerned - 9/20/2007 2:09:00 PM

Abraham Lincoln (or more accurately, his policies) were quite unpopular for much of his first term in office, btw.

20560. concerned - 9/20/2007 2:10:49 PM

And Xlowntoon accomplished very little in office, so nobody who doesn't have shit for brains is in danger of comparing him to Lincoln.

20561. concerned - 9/20/2007 2:19:46 PM

From what I've seen, the Senate Republicans are justified in at least most of their filbustering. The 'Rats are trying to pass a lot of thoughtless, garbage legislation without attempting to reach any accommodations with the other side of the aisle first.

20562. concerned - 9/20/2007 2:20:18 PM

...typo....filibustering...

20563. jexster - 9/20/2007 3:43:32 PM

Glad you think they're justified...this from a crackpot who's not 5 messages back was proved a liar once again. Why bother with the facts, when you can make shit up


Worst congress ever

Defy the will of the people...Save Bush?

Feel their pain..watch them sinking to their watery grave Grand Old PilesofPigshit in the Larry Craig toilet bowl of corruption

Bush's stairway to paradise

Hoping that history will somehow vindicate him, the president has entered a phase of decadent perversity.

By Sidney Blumenthal




Bush is a classic insecure authoritarian who imposes humiliating tests of obedience on others in order to prove his superiority and their inferiority. In 1999, according to Draper, at a meeting of economic experts at the Texas governor's mansion, Bush interrupted Rove when he joined in the discussion, saying, "Karl, hang up my jacket." In front of other aides, Bush joked repeatedly that he would fire Rove. (Laura Bush's attitude toward Rove was pointedly disdainful. She nicknamed him "Pigpen," for wallowing in dirty politics. He was staff, not family -- certainly not people like them.)

...
Bush grasps at the straws of his own disinformation as he casts himself deeper into the abyss. The more profound and compounded his blunders, and the more he redoubles his certainty in ultimate victory, the greater his indifference to failure. He has entered a phase of decadent perversity, where he accelerates his errors to vindicate his folly. As the sands of time run down, he has decided that no matter what he does, history will finally judge him as heroic.

The greater the chaos, the more he reinforces and rigidifies his views. The more havoc he wreaks, the more he insists he is succeeding. His intensified struggle for self-control is matched by his increased denial of responsibility. Hence Petraeus.



Bush's ever-inflating self-confidence hides his gaping fear of failure. His obsession with deference demands exercises of humiliation that never satisfy him. His unwavering resolve is maintained by his adamant refusal to wade into the waters of ambiguity. "You can't talk me out of thinking freedom's a good thing!" he protests to his biographer. For Bush, even when he is long out of office, presiding at his planned library's Freedom Institute -- "I would like to build a Hoover Institute" -- victory will always be just around the corner.

Bush grasps at the straws of his own disinformation as he casts himself deeper into the abyss. The more profound and compounded his blunders, and the more he redoubles his certainty in ultimate victory, the greater his indifference to failure. He has entered a phase of decadent perversity, where he accelerates his errors to vindicate his folly. As the sands of time run down, he has decided that no matter what he does, history will finally judge him as heroic.

20564. jexster - 9/20/2007 3:45:00 PM

Pigpiles of Perversity

Bet TD could suck a golf ball through a garden hose

20565. jexster - 9/20/2007 3:54:47 PM

Rather pathetic character for Republicans to sacrifice their political careers for

Those around him have learned how to manipulate him through the art of flattery. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld played Bush like a Stradivarius, exploiting his grandiosity. "Rumsfeld would later tell his lieutenants that if you wanted the president's support for an initiative, it was always best to frame it as a 'Big New Thing.'" Other aides played on Bush's self-conception as "the Decider." "To sell him on an idea," writes Draper, "aides were now learning, the best approach was to tell the president, This is going to be a really tough decision." But flattery always requires deference. Every morning, Josh Bolten, the chief of staff, greets Bush with the same words: "Thank you for the privilege of serving today." (according to the Draper Bio)

20566. jexster - 9/20/2007 3:57:49 PM

Repudiate or perish

Through his interposition of Petraeus, Bush has bound his party to his fate. Of the Republicans, only Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, leader of the 1994 self-styled radical "revolution" that captured Congress, is willing to speak publicly about the danger Bush poses to the future of the party. "I believe for any Republican to win in 2008, they have to have a clean break and offer a dramatic, bold change," he told a group of reporters on Sept. 14. "If we nominate somebody who has not done that ... they're very, very unlikely to win it."

But repudiating Bush would also mean repudiating Gingrich's legacy, too

20567. jexster - 9/20/2007 4:02:33 PM

Poll: More Republicans Than Democrats Approve of Congress

20568. concerned - 9/20/2007 4:15:03 PM

Re. 20567 -

That's because Republicans can appreciate the advantages of having a do-nothing moron-led Democrat Congress and so aren't nearly as wound up as the squinch-brained BDS addled Left.

20569. concerned - 9/20/2007 4:16:27 PM

From the Baltimore Sun:

Senate rebukes MoveOn.org for Gen. 'Betray Us' ad
by Frank James

The Senate approved, by a 72 to 25 vote, a symbolic, Republican-initiated resolution condemning the recent MoveOn.org ad that called Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. "Betray Us," with 22 Democrats voting with the Republicans.

The resolution, introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) as an amendment to a defense authorization bill, had this statement of purpose:


"To express the sense of the Senate that General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq, deserves the full support of the Senate and strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces."

That official statement didn't mention MoveOn but it didn't have to. Everyone knew it was directed at the liberal group that has provided a lot of volunteers and donations to Democrats in recent years.

It was a vote meant to demonstrate the genuine outrage felt by many lawmakers, and not just Republicans, at the personal attack the ad represented on a widely respected military leader during war time.

But it didn't hurt, from the GOP's perspective, that it helped burnish the party's pro-military image and that it put Democrats in a difficult position politically since MoveOn.org has become an important force in Democratic Party politics.

Ever since the ad ran last week, Republicans have demanded that Democratic presidential candidates renounce the ad and MoveOn.org. The Democratic candidates have refused to publicly criticize MoveOn.org though Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) said the ad was wrong.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) had offered an alternative to Cornyn's resolution that meant to support the troops without singling out the Petraeus ad and, by implication, MoveOn.org.

The statement of purpose of her resolution read thusly:


To reaffirm strong support for all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces and to strongly condemn attacks on the honor, integrity, and patriotism of any individual who is serving or has served honorably in the United States Armed Forces, by any person organization.

The vote on Boxer's resolution broke nearly along party lines, getting a simple majority of 51 -- 46 Democrats, three Republicans and two independents.

A Bloomberg News story quoted Boxer as saying the following:

"This is about politics, lets face it," said Senator Barbara Boxer of California, the sponsor of the Democratic measure. "Since when are we the ad police?"

Boxer's bill failed, however, because, to get just about any legislation through the Senate takes 60 votes, enough to end debate.

20570. jexster - 9/20/2007 4:18:15 PM

MoveOn Hits Back At Senate: "No Wonder Public Approval Of Congress Is Tanking"
By Greg Sargent - September 20, 2007, 3:36PM

MoveOn chief Eli Pariser hammers back at today's Senate vote condemning his group with this statement:

"No wonder public approval of Congress is tanking. They’re so out of touch with reality that they can find time to condemn an ad but they can't do what most Americans want -- vote to end this war."

20571. jexster - 9/20/2007 4:20:38 PM

Clean out the Pigpile
Finish the job begun last year

Worst congress ever

20572. jexster - 9/20/2007 4:21:35 PM

World Filibuster Record

Passing meaningless stunt resolutions ..cruising toilets for sex...

20573. jexster - 9/20/2007 4:24:40 PM

20574. jexster - 9/20/2007 4:25:37 PM

20575. jexster - 9/20/2007 7:33:02 PM

The Stench

Grand jury targets ex-DeLay adviser
By: JOHN BRESNAHAN |The Poltico
Blog: Subpoena is the first formal notification that Ed Buckham is the focus of a federal corruption probe.

Senate Votes to Do PR For MoveOn

20576. jexster - 9/20/2007 7:38:23 PM

Veto This Bitch

Grassley slams Bush over child health bill
Top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee angry at Bush SCHIP veto threat.

20577. jexster - 9/20/2007 7:40:11 PM

Quote Of The Day

"That 60-vote barrier is the gate around the President’s desk."

20578. jexster - 9/20/2007 7:42:23 PM

Quote of the Day II

20559. concerned - 9/20/2007 7:09:00 PM

Abraham Lincoln (or more accurately, his policies) were quite unpopular for much of his first term in office, btw.

20579. jexster - 9/20/2007 9:04:30 PM

Worst President Ever - Concerned Lies Again


23% - that was NIXON

Carter's now tied with Bush in Gallup. Jimmy's low - 29% and never as low as long as the Worst President in US Histor

George "Honest Abe" Bush
Damn that's 3 in one day. He's got game!

20580. OhioSTOPAS - 9/20/2007 9:10:15 PM

I heard the President's proposal for SChip described as an "increase" on the radio today. Perhaps, but only in the most literal sense. The Bush budget would spend $30 billion on SChip in the next five years, as compared to $25 billion in the last five. With increases in population and the cost of medical care, the amount Bush has budgeted for 2007-2012 would remove coverage from children who would receive coverage under the 2002-2007 budget.

It's reminiscent of the "slowing of the rate of increase" for Medicare proposed by Newt Gingrich and fellow Repubs in the 90's, legislation that would have reduced services and increased co-pays of Medicare recipients - but "It's not a 'cut'!"

20581. OhioSTOPAS - 9/20/2007 9:13:26 PM

Not too long ago, I heard someone ask the question, "In fifty years, will we consider George W. Bush the worst president ever?"

Many punchlines are available, of course. Mine was, "I sure as hell hope so - if not, that means that someone worse is coming up!"

20582. OhioSTOPAS - 9/20/2007 9:20:58 PM

If only the General's surname was "Passkissinglittlechickenshit."

Then MoveOn could have written an ad even his commanding officer would approve of.

20583. arkymalarky - 9/20/2007 9:23:52 PM

HAHAHAHA! How long ago was it now that the Republicans wanted to do away with the filibuster? Too bad they didn't get their way!

20584. jexster - 9/20/2007 9:54:29 PM

Ohio

ROFLMAO


Leave Gen Petraeus alone


Bush immediately moveOn to action blasting moveOn and exhorting America to stay the course to victory in Iraq!!!!



Novak's right to worry...Filibuster proof Senate coming

20585. jexster - 9/20/2007 10:37:47 PM

While Concerned pretends Bush is Abe Lincoln and that we're paying a small price in Iraq's Civil War...


Thomas Ricks, WaPo military affairs reporter, has some advice for the rest of us who live in the real world:

Ricks, author of the acclaimed book about the war called "Fiasco," has long offered a frank and balanced perspective on the course of the war. He did so again in the Smiley interview, suggesting that in some ways Gen. Davis Petraeus’s recent report on the "surge" left much to be desired. Then, in closing, he remarked that President Bush’s current strategy was simply to make sure there are at least 100,000 troops left in Iraq when he leaves office in January 2009. Further, Ricks said he wouldn’t be surprised if "we are still fighting in Iraq" when the next president’s term ends.
...

Earlier this week, in an online chat at www.washingtonpost.com, Ricks replied to a question about antiwar Americans feeling helpless this way: "This sense of despair worries me. I was on tour last month for the publication of the paperback edition of 'Fiasco' and as I gave talks and readings from Massachusetts to Texas to California I was struck by how many expressed this sense that they hate this situation but feel they can't do anything about it.

"I would say that however you feel about the war, you can have an effect. Talk to your member of Congress. Write letters to the editor of your newspaper. Speak up. Iraq isn't going to go away anytime soon, so the participation of American citizens could help the situation."

20586. concerned - 9/20/2007 11:32:41 PM

The impression of incompetence is so prevalent that it has plunged Carter close to the lowest poll ratings ever reached by a President. The figures: a 25% overall approval rating in the latest ABC News-Louis Harris poll, or one point below the nadir reached by Richard Nixon in a Harris survey two months before he resigned.

As I posted, Jimmuh Cahtuh - the worst president in US history, or at least the 20th Century.

And I caught jexster at another of his damned lies again.

20587. concerned - 9/20/2007 11:45:59 PM

Also, in 1952, even Gallup had Truman at a whopping 22% approval rating.

Suck on that one, jexster.

20588. concerned - 9/20/2007 11:46:48 PM

So, maybe Truman and Cahtuh should share the distinction of being the co-equal worst presidents in the 20th Century.

20589. jexster - 9/21/2007 7:48:36 AM

Here are the figures:

Presidential Job Approval at 29% or Lower Historically


Approval Rating


Date



%





Truman


22


1952 Feb 9-14


Truman


23


1952 Jan 6-11


Truman


23


1951 Nov 11-16


Nixon


24


1974 Aug 2-5


Nixon


24


1974 Jul 12-15


Truman


24


1951 May 19-24


Truman


24


1951 Apr 16-21


Nixon


25


1974 May 10-13


Nixon


25


1974 May 3-6


Nixon


25


1974 Apr 12-15


Nixon


25


1974 Feb 22-25


Truman


25


1952 Jan 20-25


Truman


25


1951 Jun 16-21


Nixon


26


1974 Jun 21-24


Nixon


26


1974 May 17-20


Nixon


26


1974 Apr 19-22


Nixon


26


1974 Mar 29-Apr 1


Nixon


26


1974 Mar 8-11


Nixon


26


1974 Jan 18-21


Truman


26


1951 Feb 4-9


Nixon


27


1974 Feb 8-11


Nixon


27


1974 Jan 4-7


Nixon


27


1973 Nov 2-5


Nixon


27


1973 Oct 19-22


Truman


27


1952 May 11-16


Truman


27


1951 Mar 4-9


Carter


28


1979 Jun 29-Jul 2


Nixon


28


1974 Jun 28-Jul 1


Nixon


28


1974 May 31-Jun 3


Nixon


28


1974 Feb 1-4


Truman


28


1952 Apr 13-18


Truman


28


1951 Mar 26-31


Truman


29


1951 Jul 8-13


Truman


29


1951 Oct 14-19


Truman


29


1951 Jul 13-18


Nixon


29


1973 Dec 7-10


Carter


29


1979 Jun 1-4


Carter


29


1979 Jun 22-25


Carter


29


1979 Jul 13-16


Carter


29


1979 Oct 5-8


Bush


29


1992 Jul 31-Aug 2


Bush


29


2007 Jul 6-8

20590. jexster - 9/21/2007 7:50:48 AM

Bush is at 29 right now in the Gallup poll and while the Worst President Ever is, obviously, not the same as the Most Unpopular President Ever, Bush wins that one too for while there have been lower numbers, no President has had such high disapproval numbers for as long as George W. Bush


It ain't the trifecta but it is the Daily Double

20591. jexster - 9/21/2007 7:53:00 AM

A disapproval of 65% ties for the second highest ever recorded. The highest ever recorded was just one point higher, 66%, for Richard Nixon in August of 1974, about one week before he resigned.

20592. concerned - 9/21/2007 10:33:05 AM

Sorry, jexster -

The rules say that no two term president can qualify as 'worst president ever'. This should be obvious because no president that bad would have had a chance at being reelected.

20593. jexster - 9/21/2007 11:15:16 AM

We're making up rules now

20594. jexster - 9/21/2007 11:17:11 AM

Six Billion in Iraq Contracts Under Criminal Review

20595. jexster - 9/21/2007 12:17:16 PM

Dozens of 2004 Bush Rangers Bolt for Democrats
War and Widening Deficit Trouble Bushie's Heavy Hitters

20596. jexster - 9/21/2007 12:21:29 PM

Cesspool of Corruption

FBI Tapped Sen Stevens's Phones

20597. jexster - 9/21/2007 12:23:04 PM

Reid: "War Now Belongs to the Grand Old Pigpile"

And Brunhilde Rod Ham because there are no do-overs in politics

20598. jexster - 9/21/2007 1:00:45 PM

The Filibuster Congress Paid for It, They Own It

Bush Plans for IraQ Will Cost Trillions - Budget Office

20599. jexster - 9/21/2007 1:06:33 PM

Back in October 2002, I attended the Johnston wedding with all the politicos from back Bushville way. The War Party Dems had just passed the War Res two days before. Tim Roemer was there and I wasn't in a good mood

I told my ole DC pal and Chevron GR lady Laura that I wanted to read Roemer's beads in front of God and the assembled witnesses. She appealed to the angels of my better nature but nearly lost the battle when I asked "What are Clinton and that gang of chicken shits thinking? Trust Bush not to make war?"

"Oh they realize that but they think that they can stop him via the appropriations process"

"Like I said, what is that gang of chicken shit mutha fuckas thinking?"


Run on experience I say

20600. jexster - 9/21/2007 2:02:06 PM

It's all Klowntoon's fault TD

Do the math

Jumping Ship


Forget about the presidential race. How are things looking for the GOP in the House and Senate for 2008? Not so good, at least when you add up the number of Republicans retiring and leaving once secure seats open to possible Democratic takeover.

20601. jexster - 9/21/2007 2:11:53 PM

Yikes!

The President is scared of horses? So says the former President of Mexico.

--David Kurtz


Only steers and queers come from Texas

20602. jexster - 9/21/2007 2:15:54 PM

And now that the Feds are onto the Bug Meister, Allah only knows how many GOP cockroaches will fall with him

20603. jexster - 9/21/2007 2:35:53 PM

And the Krony Kapitalist Korruption just keeps on keeping on


Most people think that the United States is the lead partner in Bush's bullshit "coalition of the willing"

Not so. 180,000 mercenary troops in Iraq are. The holy troops that the GOP hypocrites whine about supporting and then grind them into the sand....only 160,000


The infamous Blackwater is now under Congressional investigation.

Now even the State Department is looking into the sewer

Needless to say, Blackwater Inc are major Bush supporters

20604. jexster - 9/21/2007 2:36:53 PM

Those RNC talking points about the Worst Congress ever?

You be sure and keep whining TD

20605. jexster - 9/21/2007 6:45:04 PM

Chaos at the NRCC - Gives Dems a Boner!


GOP House leader John Boehner -- last seen saying that the loss of American lives in Iraq is a "small price" to pay for realizing Bush's vision in Iraq -- is upset with the "mismanagement" of the NRCC and is locked in a struggle for control over it with NRCC chief Tom Cole, according to a new report.

The Politico's John Bresnahan and Patrick O'Connor have the story. It's a good yarn, complete with shouting matches and hissy fits. The story is a reminder of just how bleak the 2008 electoral landscape looks for the GOP -- and the depth of denial about this that's reigning at the NRCC right now.....


GrandOldPigpile in the toilet....

20606. jexster - 9/21/2007 8:20:00 PM

Hey TD..that new job of yours wouldn't happen to be with the NRCC??

Inside-the-Beltway Republicans have grown frustrated with the NRCC for its unrealistically rosy assessments of an ever-eroding landscape for congressional Republicans.

Lawmakers are frustrated with Cole and his top aides for casting their net too wide by targeting Democratic-controlled seats that Republicans have little chance of picking up next year.

20607. jexster - 9/21/2007 9:19:08 PM

The Grand Old PigPile is flushed


Smit Smites GOP

20608. jexster - 9/21/2007 10:13:21 PM

The New Political Correctness:

Fatuous Fatwahs of the Crackpot Conservatives

The constant calls for political candidates to prove their bona fides by condemning or denouncing something somebody else said or to renounce a person's support or to return her tainted money are a tiresome new tic in American politics. They're turning politics into a game of "Mother, May I?" Did you say "Here is my plan for health-care reform"? Uh-oh, you were supposed to say "I condemn MoveOn.org's comments on General Petraeus, and here is my plan for health-care reform."

All this drawing of uncrossable lines and issuing of fatuous fatwas is supposed to be a bad habit of the left. When right-wingers are attacking this habit rather than practicing it, they call it political correctness. The problem with political correctness is that it turns discussions of substance into arguments over etiquette. The last thing that supporters of the war want to talk about at this point is the war. They'd far rather talk about this insult to General Petraeus. It just isn't done in polite society, it seems, to criticize a general in the middle of a war.

20609. jexster - 9/22/2007 12:53:43 PM

Breakout the cots, order up the pizza

Message # 20554

Beat the New York Times to it

In Search of Manly Men: Let the GOP Filibuster

20610. jexster - 9/23/2007 10:58:22 AM

Here's one TD and I both can get behind!


so to speak


Pardon Poor Old Larry Craig

20611. judithathome - 9/23/2007 1:12:49 PM

Video from Rachel Maddow, covering the "Value Voters" debate: YouTube link

Please listen to her reamrks on what would have happened had the Dems changed the words to "God Bless America" and had it performed by a choir before a debate...of course, they wouldn't be batshit crazy enough to do that but the main stream media would have been all over it...unlike they were with the Values Candidates.

20612. jexster - 9/23/2007 2:29:28 PM

Huckabee don't need to come to ya Judith

Huckabee's with ya Arky

I heart Huckabees

Free Larry Craig

20613. jexster - 9/23/2007 6:31:32 PM

Not ANOTHER do-over! This is turning into some kind of Reality TV show

The Hillary Rod Ham Experience
#1 - Sponsor Great Health Care Debacle 1993


WASHINGTON - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday defended her plan for universal health care and insisted she won't repeat the mistakes that doomed her earlier effort to cover millions of people when she was first lady.

Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others' experience.
Otto von Bismarck

20614. jexster - 9/23/2007 8:40:11 PM

Just in time for a Crimmus recess filibuster


This time, keep em talking til Santa comes to town

Bush to Ask for Another $195 Billion for War

And veto child health coverage to pay for it or about 1/2 day of it

20615. concerned - 9/24/2007 11:16:46 AM

More BDS on parade: Boston Globe Fifth Columnist accuses GWB of 'desecrating' 9/11 site

20616. jexster - 9/24/2007 11:31:54 AM

Old news




He climbed on the bodies so everyone could hear his BushWar lies...he's desecrated the site since 9/12 at least once a year

20617. jexster - 9/24/2007 11:32:59 AM

HUELGA!

UAW strikes to save Wonk's benefits

20618. jexster - 9/24/2007 12:11:49 PM

Grand Old Pigpile About to Pay the Piper for Decades of Race Baiting

20619. concerned - 9/24/2007 12:22:12 PM

Re. 20616 -

Who are those people next to him, jexster?

20620. jexster - 9/24/2007 12:25:48 PM

Those are the rescue workers he and Rudy fuckt. Used them too..used you!

They'll use anything

Ahmadinejad, It Turns Out, Is Just Like Us; Welcome To Your America

With all the media attention being paid to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to America, it's surprising that no one has pointed out the many curious similarities that should make him feel right at home. Note that all quotes come from Wikipedia.

*

• Ahmadeinjad has said that "I will only accept something as truth if I am actually convinced of it." When President Bush heard that, he said "Wait a minute, that's my line!"

• In a secret report specifically investigating whether or not Ahmadinejad was involved in hostage-taking at the American Embassy, the CIA declared this identification "Not proven." Here, Ahmadinejad has much in common with the many Americans who've been investigated by the CIA, and about whom the agency hasn't been able to prove anything, either.

• Ahmadinejad believes that wealthy Jews run the world. Billionaire Mayor and potential presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg was at the synagogue and unable to comment

• Even though he is "the highest directly elected official in Iran, he has less power than the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameni." Our highest directly elected official, President Bush, also must kiss the ass of religious extremists.''

• In August 2007, Ahmadinejad gave his approval for Oliver Stone to make a biopic film of him. Not to be outdone, President Bush has greenlighted an authorized film of his life to be directed by Quentin Tarrantino.

• Even after his election, "Ahmadinejad continued living in a simple apartment flat and eating meals brought from home, to his office. Both of these traits contributed to his widespread support amongst the poorer classes." Similarly, John Edwards has promised to continue to bring his $400 haircuts to his office even after his election.

• His campaign motto when he ran for President was "It's possible and we can do it," displaying the same desperate lack of imagination as American presidential candidates.

• "His critics include some of the conservatives who helped him win the 2005 presidential elections." Arlen Specter, Chuck Hagel, John Warner and Susan Collins refused to comment.

• "In his blog, Ahmadinejad described his reaction to the incident {when he requested that student protestors not be questioned or disturbed} as "a feeling of joy" because of the freedom that people enjoyed after the revolution." Note that Ahmadinejad, like millions of Americans, actually has a blog, in which he has also blamed his unhealthy fixation on Jessica Alba on the five-member United Nations Security Council.

• "Some critics have alleged that President Ahmadinejad is becoming increasingly unpopular at home for spending too much time criticizing the United States and not enough time reforming the nation's stagnant economy." See. Tehran and D.C. are closer than anybody thought.

20621. jexster - 9/24/2007 12:30:21 PM

Death Bed Conversion

McCain a Babdiss???

for votes in the deep South, John McCain dismisses his lifelong Episcopal background and declares himself a Baptist. Why?

I wonder


Rt. Rev. Eugene Robinson, first openly gay Anglican bishop

20622. jexster - 9/24/2007 1:00:12 PM

Bush: Obama a Lazy Negro

As you can see in our feature story over on the right, the White House's new line is that Barack Obama may be too "intellectually lazy" to run a serious presidential campaign let alone be President of the United States.

And don't think this was a stray comment.

The RNC just shot off an email building on the slur. With the headline "Razzle Dazzle", the email continues the theme that Obama is just another black fancy-pants with a slick smile and nice turn of phrase but either without the candle-power or stick-to-it-iveness to actually get things done.

"Chicago Star Obama Continues His All Show, No Substance Campaign With Event On Broadway," the email begins.

What to expect next out of the RNC? Obama would be a better singer and tap dancer than president.

--Josh Marshall

Not only can he tap dance, he's pretty fair with a basketball too

20623. jexster - 9/24/2007 1:50:36 PM

Conquering Hero!

Mahmoud got a rousing welcome at Columbia.
Bush would too I'm sure.

He should try it

20624. jexster - 9/24/2007 2:56:21 PM

Rudy Giuliani - Betrayal of Trust

20625. Max Macks - 9/24/2007 3:25:14 PM

Re Iranian Pres. Ahmadinejad

typically most of the protest comes from the Jewish
persecutors of Palestinians.

this is what he said, I wonder how or even IF it will
be rported in the Press


Protesters also assembled at Columbia, where President Lee Bollinger promised to grill Ahmadinejad on subjects such as human rights, the Holocaust and Iran's disputed nuclear program. The Iranian leader previously has called the Holocaust ``a myth'' and called for Israel to be ``wiped off the map.''

He told the National Press Club that his questioning of the Holocaust was based on his concern that it was used to justify Israeli oppression of the Palestinians.

``Granted that the Holocaust is a reality ... Why is it that the Palestinian people should be displaced?'' he said. ``Why are they paying the damage by giving up their land?''

At Columbia,

20626. jexster - 9/24/2007 3:34:27 PM

The guy's a mess but you can be damn sure of one thing...He's got more balls than all of Bushville combined

20627. jexster - 9/24/2007 5:06:29 PM

Juan Cole
Turning Ahmadinejad into public enemy No. 1

Demonizing the Iranian president and making his visit to New York seem controversial are all part of the neoconservative push for yet another war.

And Hillary plays right along. Learn from her experience folks. She co-sponsored the Iraq Debacle for four years. That is before her experience told her she couldn't win the nomination without a "do-over"

20628. jexster - 9/24/2007 7:11:25 PM

"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country. We do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who told you that we have it."

None in the GrandOldPigpile either

20629. Max Macks - 9/24/2007 7:41:27 PM

thanks for that link to Juan Cole

I just saw on CN Ahmadinejad at some US Press
club.
he was well spoken ( via translation) and had
a nice smile
>L>>I was surprised .

20630. jexster - 9/24/2007 8:46:23 PM

He didn't have horns?

And he rid Iran of all the homosexuals!

20631. concerned - 9/24/2007 10:32:39 PM

Re. 20629 -


He was picked for his nice smile and well spokenness. I'm sure the Iranian Mullahs will be glad to learn you were suitably impressed.

20632. jexster - 9/24/2007 11:07:24 PM

When's Bush going to speak at Columbia?

20633. robertjayb - 9/24/2007 11:08:36 PM

Bush fullfills Mencken's prophecy---Joe Galloway0

On July 26, 1920, the acerbic and cranky scribe wrote in The Baltimore Sun: " . . . all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily (and) adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

My late good buddy Leon Daniel, a wire service legend for 40 years at United Press International, dredged up that Mencken quote several years ago and found that it was a perfect fit for George W. Bush, The Decider. MSNBC's Keith Olberman highlighted the same quote this week. A tip of the hat to both of them, and to Mencken.

20634. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/24/2007 11:57:33 PM

In that case I deserve a tip of the hat too because I posted that Mencken quote on my website and in this very thread three weeks ago. Why do I bother with this place?

TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/6/2007 9:44:52 PM

Message # 20344 in thread 155

20635. winstonsmith - 9/25/2007 12:37:27 AM

I am sorry to say that it is really looking like Hillary will win the primary. If this comes to pass, is there any way Obama would accept the VP spot on her ticket?

It's not what I want but I think the ticket would be more palatable with him on it.

20636. jexster - 9/25/2007 7:25:33 AM

I don't know Wiz..You said it was Mark Twain!

Tip of the hat nonetheless...we got what we deserved after all!


Where's mine now???

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H. L. Mencken

20637. jexster - 9/25/2007 7:31:53 AM

Don't believe it Winston. Sure Hillary's the favorite but Obama has more money and more rank and file excitement. He's also stronger with independents and in most states, the Dem primary is where those voters are headed (in CA it is the only place - Republicans don't allow it)

I ain't predicting the outcome but remember that delegates are awarded proportionately to every candidate carrying 15% or so or better by congressional district.

Hillary stuck at 40% or so four months before 2/5 is beatable, and a brokered convention is not out of the question (though given her edge among party hacks, she probably has the advantage there!)

Hillary wants you to think she's unbeatable - that's why she gins up these media blitzes.


Obama isn't running for VP....

20638. jexster - 9/25/2007 7:53:53 AM

You don't always get what you want...


This is getting scary. I find myself agreeing with Pat Buchanan almost all the time. I've said this for years now


Of course, I just didn't come up with it out of thin air. Readily available crackpots like Concerned bring the point home oh so...well pointedly


Infantile Nation
by Patrick J. Buchanan

Does this generation possess the gravitas to lead the world?

Considering the hysteria that greeted the request of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to lay a wreath at Ground Zero, the answer is no.


Hillary bellowed and blustered - how predictable. But Obama he promised to tell you what you need not what you want to hear. He reiterated his commitment to meet with Ahmadinejad as President

20639. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/25/2007 9:10:20 AM

20636. jexster - 9/25/2007 7:25:33 AM

I don't know Wiz..You said it was Mark Twain!

Tip of the hat nonetheless...we got what we deserved after all!

Where's mine now???

I self-corrected the Twain misquote instantly and if there had been an edit function, it would't have mattered.

Your obcession with these gangsters has been prescient quite often, but what good does it do with so many apathetic sheep in this country?

Nevertheless . . .

20640. concerned - 9/25/2007 10:44:21 AM

jexster, the consummate treasonous whackjob, is projecting here when he refers to me.

20641. jexster - 9/25/2007 11:18:19 AM

baa..baa..baa..baa

20642. concerned - 9/25/2007 11:40:21 AM

I'm sorry. I should have said 'seditious', not 'treasonous'. I'm not some whackjob.

20643. jexster - 9/25/2007 11:53:12 AM

Now there we can agree!

20644. jexster - 9/25/2007 12:23:19 PM

Worst Congress Ever!

GOP expects to lose more House seats

By: JOSH KRAUSHAAR
GOP braces for repercussions of wave of retirements, ongoing scandals and gloomy fundraising forecasts.

20645. Max Macks - 9/25/2007 2:43:14 PM

Hillary will never get elected
can't the Demorats realize that
they seem to pick nice folks but not those
who will win an election.

20646. jexster - 9/25/2007 3:37:01 PM

Obama Rumored Over $30 Million for Third Quarter

20647. jexster - 9/25/2007 3:58:26 PM

The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy
Chapter One
John Mearsheimer, Steven Walt

20648. jexster - 9/25/2007 4:16:15 PM

Hey Max..You see that article in the Chron this am about how Bush tried to kill California's Climate Law?


The Truth Comes Out just as Bush is trying to con world leaders at the UN that he is serious about climate control

Getting harder and harder to keep the lies straight

Just ask Concerned

20649. jexster - 9/25/2007 4:18:58 PM

Hillary might make it Max - especially if she picks Evan Bayh as running mate



Secret death democratic death wish or secret plan?

I mean that would be the most boring ticket since Gore/Mentum

20650. jexster - 9/25/2007 4:48:47 PM

Worst Congress Ever!
Grim and Grimmer for the Pigpile People

When you look at what’s going on in the House, the prospects for getting back on track are pretty dim at the moment.

Ray the Hood (R-IL)

20651. jexster - 9/25/2007 4:52:57 PM

The rest of em might as well be free too

Join Larry Craig in the nearest public toilet

20652. jexster - 9/25/2007 5:22:07 PM

Be there Max or be square!


Obama For America Northern California Headquarters Opening

The HQ opening party will be this Sunday, September 30th at 1:00 PM.
WHERE: 436 14th Street, 3rd Floor - directly in front of the 14th Street exit of the Oakland City Center BART station, between Broadway and Franklin.

20653. jexster - 9/25/2007 5:38:19 PM

Cunnilingus Rice and The Great Emancipator


NEW YORK - Slain al-Qaida in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was a "diabolically brilliant" war tactician, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, likening the terror commander to Civil War generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant.


I think they're drinking big time in the Bush House...or maybe Bush has taken to crack cocaine.

20654. jexster - 9/25/2007 5:50:38 PM

The Mencken Prophecy

NEW YORK (Reuters) - How do you keep a leader as verbally gaffe-prone as U.S. President George W. Bush from making even more slips of the tongue?


When Bush addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, the White House inadvertently showed exactly how -- with a phonetic pronunciation guide on the teleprompter to get him past troublesome names of countries and world leaders.

The White House was left scrambling to explain after a marked-up draft of Bush's speech popped up briefly on the U.N. Web site as he delivered his remarks, giving a rare glimpse of the special guidance he gets for major addresses.

It included phonetic spellings for French President Nicolas Sarkozy (sar-KO-zee), a friend, and Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe (moo-GAH-bee), a target of U.S. human rights criticism.

20655. robertjayb - 9/25/2007 6:32:19 PM

V-22 Osprey deployed to Iraq...

WASHINGTON — The first combat squadron of tilt-rotor V-22 Ospreys has been quietly deployed to Iraq, ushering a new form of aerial technology into 21st Century warfare.

A Marine Corps aviation squadron and 10 Ospreys left for Iraq on Monday aboard the U.S.S. Wasp, a small Navy aircraft carrier known as an amphibious assault ship, said Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Eric Dent.

20656. jexster - 9/25/2007 7:17:44 PM

That'll make all the difference!

Meanwhile back on planet Earth, the man who led the design team for the US Military's assault rifle the M-16, says that if he had a son in Iraq, he'd give him an AK-47 (ak-74 upgrade)

20657. jexster - 9/25/2007 7:26:31 PM

Stop in the Name of Love!

Cunnilingus Rice Attempted to Obstruct Investigation into Iraq Corruption

20658. jexster - 9/25/2007 7:30:36 PM

AK-74

20659. jexster - 9/25/2007 8:06:31 PM

Hitting the White Powder Again???

Olbermann reports that Bush followed up his RodHam Victory Memo, sending backchannel advice to Brunhilde on how to stay in Iraq.

I think he's off the wagon and hitting the white powder again but at least he was lucid enough to choose his Debacle Co-sponsor

20660. winstonsmith - 9/25/2007 10:17:48 PM

re 20637

Thanks Jex,

I continue to support Obama and am about to send him some more money. I still fear that the Dems may make a stupid choice in the primary.

20661. jexster - 9/26/2007 12:20:28 PM

Me too! The Clinton Machine is powerful, awesome even

20662. jexster - 9/26/2007 12:22:22 PM

Rumors about that Obama's raised 30 million this quarter. Some think it could be Dillary Disinformation designed to inflate the expectation but it is reasonable...Hell the Oprah weekend between SF Portland Santa Barbara he raised 5 million in 2 days

20663. jexster - 9/26/2007 12:23:42 PM

US Soldier to Return Iraq Medals in Protest

20664. concerned - 9/26/2007 12:34:00 PM

From OneCosmos:

The Patterned Irrationality of the Left

In the unconscious mind, where symmetrical logic rules the night, the stronger the emotion one is feeling, the more "symmetrical deductions" are likely to occur.

For example, as Bomford writes, on a deep unconscious level, "one who hates has to believe that his or her hatred is returned." Note that this is a logical operation, only based upon a different sort of logic. This logic is no doubt the source of the psychotic fear of Israel in the Islamic world. Their unconscious hatred is so profound that it simultaneously reverses the relation, so that they can't help perceiving that Israel hates them. But Israelis just want to shop, raise their families, or read the Torah. They couldn't care less about Muslims, except to the extent that bloodthirsty Muslim barbarians harbor murderous rage toward them.

It's fine to hate evil, but in the Islamic world, what is hated is transformed into evil. Something is not hated because it is evil, but evil because it is hated. One could say the same of the left, which habitually fears what it eternally hates. The left cannot be comprehended unless one appreciates the extent of their unbound hatred. Once this is grasped, what seems illogical is suddenly seen to obey the dictates of symmetrical logic. For example, the unconscious feeling that I hate America and want us to lose in Iraq is transformed to General Petraeus is a traitor, or I am a racist becomes America is racist, or I am unbearably envious becomes the wealthy are engaged in class warfare against me!

Another characteristic of the unconscious is that it is timeless, in the sense that it can reverse temporal relations. For example, in the unconscious mind, if A is the cause of B, B can also be the cause of A. Thus, "before" and "after" become meaningless. Therefore, although we were inexcusably attacked by Islamists on 9-11, within minutes, leftists were saying that the real reason for the attack was that we had done something to offend Muslims.

Likewise, throughout the Cold War, leftist scholars wrote "revisionist" histories, in which the United States was the cause of the Cold War, or at least equally responsible for it. You will notice that there are no conservative revisionists who write, for example, that blacks were the cause of their own lynching, or that Japanese Americans were the cause of their own internment. You can only think in this manner if you are pathologically under the sway of unconscious symmetrical logic.

Also in the unconscious mind, there is no distinction between the memory of something that actually occurred vs. the memory of a fantasy. Here we can understand how and why the left is so prone to mythologizing the past, as their fantasies are mingled with reality.

Thus, no amount of reality and asymmetrical logic will ever convince them that FDR made the Great Depression worse, not better, or that the black family only began to disintegrate after the imposition of all the "Great Society" programs of the mid to late '60s. No amount of logic could convince a leftist that his policies harm the "little guy," since his ruling myth, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, is that he is here to rescue the hapless little guy (for whom the leftist always feels rich contempt in the unconscious mind, contempt which only seeps out everywhere).

One thing you will notice about the left is that they are passionate. Because the left is guided by feelings and intentions, they are blind to the results of their actions. If their feelings are infinitely good, then in the unconscious mind, the results must also be infinitely good.

As I have written before, this is a religious passion in the absence of religion, so it has no traditional means to structure and channel it. Just as religion partakes of symmetrical logic in an adaptive way (i.e., the meek shall inherit the earth, the Golden Rule, humans are made in the image of the Creator, etc.), leftists do so in a terribly unhealthy way. That is, because of the intensity of their feelings, these feelings reach way down into the symmetrical realm, with no way to structure or make sense of them. This is why you always see so much highly charged, "unfiltered" unconscious material coming out of the left. To borrow a metaphor from someone, reading dailykos or huffington post is like taking a ride through a sewer in a glass bottom boat.

As Bomford writes, the dictates of symmetrical logic mean that deductions "do not follow the path of fact, but of feeling or emotion." And although this inevitably leads to "crazy" deductions based upon a chain of feelings, in a sense, it is much more "free" than asymmetrical, Aristotelian logic. For example, the latter "has a deterministic feel. That is to say, it never delivers a new truth, though it may deliver truths that had not been clear before. Everything is already 'there' in the premises."

Not so symmetrical logic, which has considerably more freedom to "deduce." It can easily arrive at patent falsehoods while still obeying its own logic. For example, the knuckleheads at Columbia University believe that having a genocidal sociopath speak on their campus is an instance of defending "freedom of speech." I would agree, but only in a psychotically cluelessidal way, rooted in symmetrical logic. By the standards of normal logic, it makes no sense whatsoever. It's crazy.

One of the most fascinating aspects of unconscious logic is the way it can shift attributes from agent to agent. For example, as mentioned above, it is the work of a moment for a leftist to turn a perpetrator into a victim and a victim into a perpetrator, based upon the emotional needs of the day. For example, the standard leftist logic would be Larry Craig --> Homosexual --> Ultimate Victim. But place an "R" after the name, and the overriding logic becomes Republican --> Homophobic Victimizer --> Burn him!

Likewise, the normal train of leftist logic would be ROTC --> Don't ask, Don't tell policy --> Homophobia --> Get off our campus, fascists! But Ahmadinejad -- whose government's policy toward homosexuals is "don't tell, because we'll bury you alive" -- is given a pass because he shares the left's passionate hatred of America and of President Bush. Their interests converge in the deep, symmetrical unconscious. Ironically, it is obvious that Ahmadinejad is much more conscious of this than the left to which his manipulative talking points are tailored. You might say that he is consciously speaking to the left's unconscious, pushing every one of their happy buttons he can think of.

Don't believe me?

Daily Kos: 45% Want Ahmadinejad As US President

jexster: the poster child of LW irrationality

20665. jexster - 9/26/2007 12:45:17 PM

Kareem Ramadan to you


Must make you feel about two feet tall...humiliated that a bunch of uncivilized wretched Muslims with AK47's have defeated the WarLord Bush - who hasn't got the balls to speak at Columbia! - in each of the five wars he has started during his disastrous reign

Worse still, he has totally wrecked US ground armies to the point where he couldn't invade Qatar if Osama built a villa there

20666. jexster - 9/26/2007 12:47:09 PM

Don't blame me

Look in the mirror


Night of Power comes October 9

Introduction
This surat is titled Surat Al-Qadr meaning 'The night of power'. It is the 97th surat from the 114 contained in the Holy Quraan. Said to be revealed in Makkah, some hold the opinion that it was revealed in Madinah. The subject-matter is the Night of Power (or Honour), in which Revelation came down to the Prophet Peace and Blessings be upon him for the first through the Angel Jibrail (Gabriel)
Back

"We have indeed revealed this in the 'Night of Power'"

One of the most meritous aspects of Islam fall in one of the last 5 odd nights of the Holy month of Ramadhan. It is the most blessed night of the year. Reference here is made to the fact that on this special night the Holy Quraan was revealed. One reason this night is referred to as the Night of Power is due to the increase in the amount of reward gained by worship performed on this particular night in comparison to any other throughout the whole year.
Back

"And what will explain to you what the night of power is?"

The question being asked here is: "Have you any knowledge as to how great and important this night is, and to the favours and bounties which are placed within the Night of Power"?
Back

"The Night of Power is better than a thousand months"

This verse means that the worship performed in this night brings more reward than the worship performed in a thousand months, but how much more better? Allah is such a great being that anything is possible from his behalf. "A thousand" must be taken in an indefinite sense; meaning a very long period of time. This does not refer to our ideas of time, but to "timeless Time".
Back

"Therein come down The Angels and the Spirit By Allah's permission, on every errand"

The Angels descend by Allah's permission and the Spirit mentioned here is usually understood to be the angel Gabriel
Back

"Peace!...This until the rise of Morn!"

When the Night of spiritual darkness is dissipated by the glory of Allah, a wonderful peace and sense of security arise in the soul, and this lasts on until this life closes, and the glorious day of the new world dawns, when everything will be on a different plane, and the chequered nights and days of this world will be even less than a dream.

20667. concerned - 9/26/2007 1:00:47 PM

Re. 20665 -

Another good example of the Left's patterned irrationality in this post.

20668. jexster - 9/26/2007 1:36:41 PM

Let's make it simple so even you can understand

"You Bush and what army" gonna fight your crusade

20669. jexster - 9/26/2007 1:36:55 PM

Irrational

You bet

20670. jexster - 9/26/2007 1:38:24 PM

There she goes again

Brunehilde Votes YES on Lieberman/Kyl Iran Resolution


She Co-Sponsored the Greatest Strategic Disaster in US History and supported Bush for four years until she decided to run for president

Clinton is a charter member of the Democratic Wing of the War Party and of this there can be no doubt

Let this race be about the experience of the Democratic Candidates

20671. jexster - 9/26/2007 1:59:31 PM

Give Em Hell Larry!

Craig Now Refuses to Say Whether He'll Resign

20672. Max Macks - 9/26/2007 2:21:15 PM

Thanks for that post about how Bush
gets his speeches in phonetic notes

have wondered in the few mintues that I can
tolerate seeing his jerky facial movments
and voice on Lehr News hour
how he could speak as coherently as he seemed to

sure would like to see a copy of the teleprompter
speech.

20673. concerned - 9/26/2007 2:46:05 PM

Another good passage from OneCosmos about the Leftist mentality:

I think we can see this same dynamic in the dysfunctional relationship between the left -- which is so obviously like a child or hysterical (the operative word is hysterical) female -- and the right, which too often deals with the left as if mere logic will satisfy them. It doesn't work and it won't work, as anyone who's tried to have a rational conversation with a leftist knows. In their shrill paranoia, narcissism, and hysteria, it's as if the left is crying out in pain, so that their literal words are completely unimportant. If it were a micro-relationship, we'd know how to deal with them.

But in the macro realm, how does one respond to a whole psychoclass of histrionic girly men? (And please keep in mind that we are specifically talking about a form of dysfunctional feminized consciousness, not the normal or healthy variety. A radical feminist is not a normal woman, any more than Dennis Kucinich is a normal man.) In fact, to be fair, the left is mainly composed of hysterical women (of both sexes) and of adolescent boys and girls. In both cases, there is a developmental arrest, the failure to become a proper man or woman. Indeed, this is one of the premises of leftism, which rejects any concept of a spiritual telos to human psychological growth. Rather, all is relative, so that no way of living or being is superior to any other.

20674. jexster - 9/26/2007 3:34:40 PM

Pretty authoritative there TD.


[I think he's lost his mind - what little there was of it]

Feel his pain

20675. jexster - 9/26/2007 3:35:54 PM

Bush Promised Democracy, Freedom, Peace, Flowers and Candy


Myanmar, Somalia, and the Nation formerly known as Iraq Top Most Corrupt Countries List

20676. jexster - 9/26/2007 3:37:42 PM

Worst Congress Ever
Another GOP Congressmen Retires

20677. jexster - 9/26/2007 3:39:56 PM

I think we need Wizzer here

I think we need a virtual intervention

I fear that if we do not act soon, the police will find TD on some sleazy street corner blubbering incoherently about Klowntoon, Kucinich, Sharpton and nefarious Lefties

20678. jexster - 9/26/2007 3:48:53 PM

Wounded Iraq War Vets Still Getting Treated Like Shit

20679. concerned - 9/26/2007 4:02:15 PM

jexster needs a new private name for Iraq. Any suggestions?

20680. jexster - 9/26/2007 5:21:59 PM

Mess-O-Potamia

20681. jexster - 9/26/2007 6:42:55 PM

Maybe he should move to Iran


CheneyBushDumbsfeld darling Gen Peter Pan Pace Says Homosexuality is "Immoral"


America love it or leave it

20682. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/26/2007 11:17:59 PM

When it comes to Pavlov's Dopes, like connie, you're on your own, jexster.

20683. jexster - 9/27/2007 6:11:45 AM

Conspiracy to Wage Agressive War:
Bush Rice Anza Caught on Tape
Spanish Newspaper Publishes Transcript

20684. jexster - 9/27/2007 6:31:56 AM

Hillary Can be Stopped
Peaking Now?
Real Clear Politics

20685. Max Macks - 9/27/2007 1:15:51 PM

anyone see Paul Solomon on Lehr news
about the fautls of the M-16/ M4
rife American troops are still using
which mis fire often and are inferior to
the AK-47

and governemnet contractors?

20686. jexster - 9/27/2007 1:25:49 PM

Yeah linked above there Max!!!


El Pais, Spain's number 1 daily newspaper, has a scoop a transcript of a meeting between Bush and Jose Maria Aznar proving that Bush lied us into war.

The Aznar Tapes

20687. jexster - 9/27/2007 2:53:18 PM

Chicken Shit Litte Ass Kisser

Same as he ever was

Roots of Iraq weapon probes date to 2004 By RICHARD LARDNER, Associated Press Writer
48 minutes ago



As President Bush and Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry clashed in late 2004 over the direction of the Iraq war, a rising Army star joined the debate.

Then-Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, head of a new command overseeing the training and equipping of Iraq's security forces, said headway was being made.

Tens of thousands of rifles, pistols, body armor, vehicles, and radios, along with millions of ammunition rounds, had been delivered to Iraqis over a three-month period, he wrote in a commentary for The Washington Post six weeks before the presidential election.

The weapons and countless pieces of other gear, paid for with tens of millions of U.S. tax dollars, were indeed flowing — but as it turns out, not always to the right places or into the right hands.

In the rush to arm Iraqi forces against a violent insurgency, U.S. military officials did not keep good records. About 190,000 weapons weren't fully accounted for, according to one audit.

20688. jexster - 9/27/2007 4:20:13 PM

Is This the Best Robert and Judith Can Come Up With?

Manuel is headed for France last I heard



TX-SEN
Sep 27 Research 2000
Cornyn (R) 51%, Noriega (D) 35%

That man is the second dumbest Texican I've ever seen.


Won't be too soon, the day we return that flat wasteland of phonies and martial misfits back to Mexico

20689. jexster - 9/27/2007 5:05:53 PM

Bush Krony Kapitalism in Action


Led to Bush's Little Stalingrad - Fallujah
Bush's crony butchers - Blackwater USA

WASHINGTON - Blackwater USA triggered a major battle in the Iraq war by sending an unprepared team of security guards into an insurgent stronghold, a move that led to their horrific deaths and a violent response by U.S. forces, according to a congressional investigation released Thursday.

20690. jexster - 9/27/2007 6:00:55 PM

No Child Left Behind

Childrens Do Learn


Shouldn't that be "chirrens"?

20691. jexster - 9/27/2007 6:15:39 PM

In his first appearance as Army chief of staff, Casey told the House Armed Services Committee that the Army is "out of balance" and "the current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply. We are consumed with meeting the demands of the current fight and are unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as necessary for other potential contingencies."


The Army Bush Broke

20692. jexster - 9/27/2007 6:33:24 PM

Worst Congress Ever


Doolittle and 5 Aides Received Grand Jury Subpoenas in Abramoff Probe

20693. jexster - 9/27/2007 9:33:32 PM

24,000 in Washington Square

20694. jexster - 9/28/2007 1:09:56 PM

Bout sums it up


From BushVille's perspective, the problem is - BUSH


Stop the friggin presses



WASHINGTON - A small group of Republicans facing election fights next year have rallied around war legislation they think could unite the GOP: call for an end to U.S. combat in Iraq, but wait until President Bush is out of office.

The legislation was deemed essentially a nonstarter by Democrats Friday and underscored the difficulty Congress has in striking a bipartisan compromise on the war. What attracts Democrats has repelled Republicans and vice versa, making it impossible so far to find a middle ground

20695. jexster - 9/28/2007 1:26:38 PM

O! Army Invades Billary Hill
24,000 Hear Obama Draw Sharp Distinction's on Brunehilde's Turf

And I can report that California is getting ready to rumble. We've set up the first statewide organization outside the early states and are opening our NoCali office on Sunday. In our district alone we have over 8,000 volunteer contacts, over 100,000 Statewide

Held our first CD8 Campaign Council meeting last night..Pretty nifty shit

20696. jexster - 9/28/2007 6:32:31 PM

Sunday we're having our headquarters opening party

Sunday two hours later right outside our window, Shrillary's going to be shrieking

20697. jexster - 9/29/2007 8:38:07 PM

The Way of the Whigs???

Leading indicators point down for GOP




John we will rule forever
Mike DeNunzio
Chairman SF County GOP
November 2004

Proving once again that two years is an eternity in politics

20698. jexster - 9/29/2007 10:02:00 PM

Get ready. We've been watching this one develop for a while. Five wars, five losses. Karzai wants to put the Taliban in the government and Iraq - well it no longer exists.

So what oh what is a War Party to do???

Just what they did with their Vietnam disaster. What they always do when they lose a war.

Five wars Five Losses


The Coming Dolchstoss Campaign



Having exposed their country to the ignominy of certain defeat in Iraq, the Bush Administration and its neoconservative allies are seeking to salvage their crumbling reputations by blaming their critics for the catastrophe their policies have wrought. We are witnessing the foundation for a post-Iraq "stab in the back" campaign.

20699. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/29/2007 11:29:49 PM

Mario Cuomo on Hardball:

Let’s not do what we did before and wind up apologizing for our resolutions and saying we’re sorry. Now remember, the Founding Fathers gave the powers to declare war to the Congress. That power cannot be delegated to the President. You can’t adopt a resolution and say well, the Founding Fathers wanted us to do it, but it’s too heavy a lift for us, so we empower you, Mr. President, if you feel like doing it, to do it.

And my goodness, the President you’re talking about is the president who started a war with a mistaken context-assuming he was telling the truth, and I will-he was wrong about the reason for it, he was wrong about complicity, he was wrong about how many troops we needed, he was wrong about how we would be greeted when we got there, he was wrong about the civil war, wrong about how much it would cost, wrong about how long it would last and now you’re saying maybe he can start another war. It’s a mistake; this an opportunity for Democrats to show real leadership. And the presidential candidates should lead the way. And if they don’t, then the question is going to be when it comes to improvident war-making, why are you any better than Bush?

20700. jexster - 9/30/2007 10:11:54 AM

The Bums Rush Back to the Future
Is Hillary Clinton the New Old Al Gore?
By FRANK RICH

THE Democrats can't lose the White House in 2008, can they?

Some 13 months before Election Day, the race's dynamic seems immutable. Americans can't wait to evict the unpopular president and end his disastrous war. As the campaign's poll-tested phrasemaking constantly reminds us, voters crave change above all else. That means nearly any Democrat might do, even if the nominee isn't the first woman, black or Hispanic to lead a major party's ticket.

The Republican field of aging white guys, meanwhile, gets flakier by the day. The front-runner has taken to cooing to his third wife over a cellphone in the middle of campaign speeches. His hottest challenger, the new "new Reagan," may have learned his lines for "Law & Order," but clearly needs cue cards on the stump. In Florida, even the most rudimentary details of red-hot local issues (drilling in the Everglades, Terri Schiavo) eluded him. The party's fund-raising is anemic. Its snubs of Hispanic and African-American voters kissed off essential swing states in the Sun Belt and moderate swing voters farther north.

So nothing can go wrong for the Democrats. Can it?

Of course it can, and not just because of the party's perennial penchant for cutting off its nose to spite its face. ....

20701. Max Macks - 9/30/2007 2:42:34 PM

Just read that that ass hole John Boltn

is in England drummig up support for bombing Iran

didn't know tht clown was still around

20702. jexster - 9/30/2007 2:43:14 PM

There's so much red meat on Millary my arteries clog just thinking about it.

The Nepotism Tango
By MAUREEN DOWD


Maybe it’s fitting that a woman who first sashayed into the national consciousness with an equation — “two for the price of one” — may have her fate determined by the arithmetic of dynasty.

The town is divided into two camps: those who think that, after 16 years of Hillary pushing herself forward, the public will get worn out and reject her, and those who think that, after 16 years of Hillary pushing herself forward, the public will get worn down and give in to her


I'll have to take up tofu

20703. jexster - 9/30/2007 6:27:28 PM

Bolton's freelancing for the War Party whackos. He had concerned cackling about Syria's nuclear program

They want a little Iran shock and awe but time's running out for the scum

20704. jexster - 9/30/2007 6:28:45 PM

Quotoe of 2007

[Brunehilde’s] never going to get out of our faces. ... She’s like some hellish housewife who has seen something that she really, really wants and won’t stop nagging you about it until finally you say, fine, take it, be the damn president, just leave me alone.

20705. jexster - 9/30/2007 8:42:54 PM

She's full o venom today!

Without nepotism, Hillary would be running for the president of Vassar. But then, without nepotism, W. would be pumping gas in Midland — and not out of the ground.

20706. jexster - 9/30/2007 9:16:53 PM

Little Georgie's hittin the white powder again.

I am sure he's drinking. Have you listened to any of his recent speeches

Now Sy Hersh confirms that he wants a little fireworks show before he returns to the life of a simple cowboy...Going out with a bang..he's going to bomb Iran but not the non-existent nookolars..just whatever don't matter


Sy Hersh:

At a White House meeting with Cheney this summer, according to a former senior intelligence official, it was agreed that, if limited strikes on Iran were carried out, the Administration could fend off criticism by arguing that they were a defensive action to save soldiers in Iraq. If Democrats objected, the Administration could say, “Bill Clinton did the same thing; he conducted limited strikes in Afghanistan, the Sudan, and in Baghdad to protect American lives.” The former intelligence official added, “There is a desperate effort by Cheney et al. to bring military action to Iran as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the politicians are saying, ‘You can’t do it, because every Republican is going to be defeated, and we’re only one fact from going over the cliff in Iraq.’ But Cheney doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the Republican worries, and neither does the President.”

20707. thoughtful - 10/1/2007 1:02:18 PM

This could make richard mellon scaife look like a piker. It's not bad enough that many people are so easily swayed by the likes of fox news and talk radio...now they're going to get "Freedom Watch".

Founded this summer by a dozen wealthy conservatives, the nonprofit group is set apart from most advocacy groups by the immense wealth of its core group of benefactors, its intention to far outspend its rivals and its ambition to pursue a wide-ranging agenda. Its next target: Iran policy.

Remember how bush sr got us into somalia just before he left office leaving the mess for wjc to clean up? How much you wanna make a bet that W will do the same for the next pres with iran...

20708. jexster - 10/1/2007 3:33:20 PM

Not a bet I'd take. The NeoCons are out beating the war drums big time. Time's running out for the scumbags

20709. jexster - 10/1/2007 3:46:28 PM

Chorus of Bush Advisers Seek Iran War

20710. jexster - 10/1/2007 4:03:32 PM

Israel Bush Poised for War on Iran


A respected American paper posted a scoop this week: Vice President Dick Cheney, the King of Hawks, has thought up a Machiavellian scheme for an attack on Iran. Its main point: Israel will start by bombing an Iranian nuclear installation, Iran will respond by launching missiles at Israel, and this will serve as a pretext for an American attack on Iran.

Far-fetched? Not really. It is rather like what happened in 1956.

20711. arkymalarky - 10/1/2007 6:17:46 PM

Why has Hillary not revealed what she raised this quarter?

20712. jexster - 10/1/2007 7:15:00 PM

I dunno..sandbagging?

And what have you done for the Cause Arky? Say I know where you can find a major Caltrans dump of roadkill for that roadkill stew you like so much

20713. jexster - 10/1/2007 9:22:33 PM

Bush Hits Bottom
Public Favors Democrats on Iraq

Most Americans oppose fully funding Bush's $190 billion request for war, and majority support expansion of children's health insurance bill.


And Congress approval is 4 points lower than Bush!

TD should look at it this way.
When you hit bottom, there's no place else to go but up. I'm serious. Stay out of Iran. Pray the Dems go with Shrillary, and the GOPigpile might have a half decent chance next year

20714. arkymalarky - 10/1/2007 10:51:45 PM

Hey, I'm in southern AR, but I'm not that close to Louisiana.

20715. concerned - 10/3/2007 12:39:27 AM

Senate Moronity Leader and full time phony Harry Reid blatantly mischaracterized Rush Limbaugh's calling Left Wing flake Jesse Macbeth a 'phony soldier'.

After Reid the Rat's ridiculous 'million Iraqi death' gaffe, this is only further proof that he either has little conception of what reality is or no respect for it and his constituents.

20716. concerned - 10/3/2007 12:40:45 AM

constituents

20717. concerned - 10/3/2007 12:44:25 AM

And let us not forget 'phony war hero' Harkin.

20718. concerned - 10/3/2007 12:49:54 AM

Reid the 'Rat, Peloser and Harkin are the stuff of which single digit Congressional approval ratings are made.

20719. concerned - 10/3/2007 12:53:41 AM

Reid the 'Rat shows how much class he has (none) by lying about Rush Limbaugh.

20720. jexster - 10/3/2007 1:26:29 AM

I heard Limbaugh. "Phony soldier!" his words listen for yourself



And for those who didn't get it the first time, his comment on this Vet's tv spot

"Somebody strapped a suicide vest on him"

His injuries were from a suicide bombing.


But you're right. This is petty GOP stuff. The people want the Dems to end this war not pass stupid resolutions about nothing.

Worst Congress ever - GOP Congressional approval - 27%
Dems - 38%


Listen for yourself

Fat sack of shit. Talk about phony! He even cut out the colloquy from his Armed Forces Radio Net broadcast.

20721. jexster - 10/3/2007 1:32:05 AM

Phony Soldier Maj Gen John Batiste on the Phat Phony

20722. jexster - 10/3/2007 1:33:43 AM

20723. concerned - 10/3/2007 1:46:30 AM

The phony soldier was convicted for lying about his war record.

That good enough for you, jexster?

20724. concerned - 10/3/2007 1:47:08 AM

The phony soldier was convicted for lying about his war record.

That good enough for you, jexster?

20725. concerned - 10/3/2007 1:48:27 AM

It would be, except that you're a liar too.

20726. jexster - 10/3/2007 2:07:10 AM

Bullshit

"Phony soldiers"

The ones that oppose dying for nothing


In his own words ...right up thread

20727. jexster - 10/3/2007 2:15:10 AM

Media Matters

During the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq "phony soldiers." He made the comment while discussing with a caller a conversation he had with a previous caller, "Mike from Chicago," who said he "used to be military," and "believe[s] that we should pull out of Iraq." Limbaugh told the second caller, whom he identified as "Mike, this one from Olympia, Washington," that "[t]here's a lot" that people who favor U.S. withdrawal "don't understand" and that when asked why the United States should pull out, their only answer is, " 'Well, we just gotta bring the troops home.' ... 'Save the -- keeps the troops safe' or whatever," adding, "[I]t's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people." "Mike" from Olympia replied, "No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media." Limbaugh interjected, "The phony soldiers." The caller, who had earlier said, "I am a serving American military, in the Army," agreed, replying, "The phony soldiers."

As you can see, Limbaugh responded to the firestorm on his website 1)by editing the transcript 2) Adding a totally superfluous diatribe about MacBeth which was not the subject at all. He made that up after the fact.

CALLER: The phony soldiers. If you talk to any real soldier and they're proud to serve, they want to be over in Iraq, they understand their sacrifice and they're willing to sacrifice for the country.

RUSH: They joined to be in Iraq.

RUSH: It's frustrating and maddening, and why they must be kept in the minority. I want to thank you, Mike, for calling. I appreciate it very much.

20728. jexster - 10/3/2007 2:17:56 AM

So what else is new? These cockroaches have been doing the same thing for 6 years now. Anyone who dares to say Bush has lost five wars and fathered the greatest strategic debacle in US history get the bums rush ..."Sedition!" "Traitor"


Same old farts from a the same old GrandOldPigpile of gas bags and the Limbaugh Legion

20729. jexster - 10/3/2007 2:27:58 AM

The Phony Soldiers Transcript

LIMBAUGH: Mike in Chicago, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER 1: Hi Rush, how you doing today?

LIMBAUGH: I'm fine sir, thank you.

CALLER 1: Good. Why is it that you always just accuse the Democrats of being against the war and suggest that there are absolutely no Republicans that could possibly be against the war?

LIMBAUGH: Well, who are these Republicans? I can think of Chuck Hagel, and I can think of Gordon Smith, two Republican senators, but they don't want to lose the war like the Democrats do. I can't think of -- who are the Republicans in the anti-war movement?

CALLER 1: I'm just -- I'm not talking about the senators. I'm talking about the general public -- like you accuse the public of all the Democrats of being, you know, wanting to lose, but --

LIMBAUGH: Oh, come on! Here we go again. I uttered a truth, and you can't handle it, so you gotta call here and change the subject. How come I'm not also hitting Republicans? I don't know a single Republican or conservative, Mike, who wants to pull out of Iraq in defeat. The Democrats have made the last four years about that specifically.

CALLER 1: Well, I am a Republican, and I've listened to you for a long time, and you're right on a lot of things, but I do believe that we should pull out of Iraq. I don't think it's winnable. And I'm not a Democrat, but I just -- sometimes you've got to cut the losses.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you -- you --

CALLER 1: I mean, sometimes you really gotta know when you're wrong.

LIMBAUGH: Well, yeah, you do. I'm not wrong on this. The worst thing that can happen is losing this, flying out of there, waving the white flag. Do you have --

CALLER 1: Oh, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying anything like that, but, you know --

LIMBAUGH: Well, of course you are.

CALLER 1: No, I'm not.

LIMBAUGH: Bill, the truth is -- the truth is the truth, Mike.

CALLER 1: We did what we were supposed to do, OK. We got rid of Saddam Hussein. We got rid of a lot of the terrorists. Let them run their country --

LIMBAUGH: Oh, good lord! Good lord.

[...]

CALLER 1: How long is it gonna -- how long do you think we're going to have to be there for them to take care of that?

LIMBAUGH: Mike --

CALLER 1: How long -- you know -- what is it?

LIMBAUGH: Mike --

CALLER 1: What is it?

LIMBAUGH: Mike, you can't possibly be a Republican.

CALLER 1: I am.

LIMBAUGH: You are -- you are --

CALLER 1: I am definitely a Republican.

LIMBAUGH: You can't be a Republican. You are --

CALLER 1: Oh, I am definitely a Republican.

LIMBAUGH: You are tarnishing the reputation, 'cause you sound just like a Democrat.

CALLER 1: No, but --

LIMBAUGH: The answer to your question --

CALLER 1: -- seriously, how long do we have to stay there --

LIMBAUGH: As long as it takes!

CALLER 1: -- to win it? How long?

LIMBAUGH: As long as it takes! It is very serious.

CALLER 1: And that is what?

LIMBAUGH: This is the United States of America at war with Islamofascists. We stay as long -- just like your job. You do everything you have to do, whatever it takes to get it done, if you take it seriously.

CALLER 1: So then you say we need to stay there forever --

LIMBAUGH: I -- it won't --

CALLER 1: -- because that's what it'll take.

LIMBAUGH: No, Bill, or Mike -- I'm sorry. I'm confusing you with the guy from Texas.

CALLER 1: See, I -- I've used to be military, OK? And I am a Republican.

LIMBAUGH: Yeah. Yeah.

CALLER 1: And I do live [inaudible] but --

LIMBAUGH: Right. Right. Right, I know.

CALLER 1: -- you know, really -- I want you to be saying how long it's gonna take.

LIMBAUGH: And I, by the way, used to walk on the moon!

CALLER 1: How long do we have to stay there?

LIMBAUGH: You're not listening to what I say. You can't possibly be a Republican. I'm answering every question. That's not what you want to hear, so it's not even penetrating your little wall of armor you've got built up.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Another Mike, this one in Olympia, Washington. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER 2: Hi Rush, thanks for taking my call.

LIMBAUGH: You bet.

CALLER 2: I have a retort to Mike in Chicago, because I am a serving American military, in the Army. I've been serving for 14 years, very proudly.

LIMBAUGH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER 2: And, you know, I'm one of the few that joined the Army to serve my country, I'm proud to say, not for the money or anything like that. What I would like to retort to is that, if we pull -- what these people don't understand is if we pull out of Iraq right now, which is about impossible because of all the stuff that's over there, it'd take us at least a year to pull everything back out of Iraq, then Iraq itself would collapse, and we'd have to go right back over there within a year or so. And --

LIMBAUGH: There's a lot more than that that they don't understand. They can't even -- if -- the next guy that calls here, I'm gonna ask him: Why should we pull -- what is the imperative for pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out? They can't -- I don't think they have an answer for that other than, "Well, we just gotta bring the troops home."

CALLER 2: Yeah, and, you know what --

LIMBAUGH: "Save the -- keep the troops safe" or whatever. I -- it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.

CALLER 2: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.

LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.

LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined --

CALLER 2: A lot of them -- the new kids, yeah.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you know where you're going these days, the last four years, if you signed up. The odds are you're going there or Afghanistan or somewhere.

CALLER 2: Exactly, sir.