Blue Monday

A government commission's war probe accused of "severe failure," saying the nation was led hastily into conflict without a comprehensive plan. The Bush Administration? Nope - Ehud Olmert of Israel and their foolish war on Lebanon was the target of the scathing report. Though it should be noted that BushCo and the neocons cheered Olmert on.

If anyone hasn't heard about it yet, the destroyed Oakland freeway ramp is pretty damned scary. The closure will also be really inconvenient for a lot of folks until its fixed (probably a couple of months). On a personal note, I rarely use that facility, but there's a good chance the mess will reverberate to other adjacent ramps and highways. Its a miracle no one was hurt, not even the driver.

Tony Snow is back to work today as chief lie spinner for BushCo. While I certainly wish him improved health and a long life, this man should hang his head in shame.

Tragically, over 100 US soldiers have died in vain in Iraq this month.

I've noted the lack of political reconciliation in Iraq dooms the surge to failure. The lack of economic progress has the same effect in mooting the surge. This is why Iraq is the Stupid Pointless War.

Fox News: Dumbing Down the Bias

We all know the allegations - Fox News is biased towards the right, and dumbs down the news. Are these allegations correct? Certainly the democratic candidates for president thought so when they snubbed Fox News for their first debate. And we all know that Dick Cheney appears almost exclusively on Fox (except when he's rolling Tim Russert, but I digress).

Let's take a look a what researchers and others have found. First, World Public Opinion completed a year-long analysis of news sources. Their key finding:

[T]he frequency of [Iraq War] misperceptions varies significantly according to individuals’ primary source of news. Those who primarily watch Fox News are significantly more likely to have misperceptions [about the Iraq War], while those who primarily listen to NPR or watch PBS are significantly less likely.

This comes on the heels of a recent Pew Center poll showing that Fox News viewers are among the least informed on current events.

In addition, researchers Ethan Kaplan and Stefano DellaVigna analyzed the question of Fox News bias by looking at the impact of Fox News on voting patterns. From the National Bureau of Economic Research:

[Kaplan and Della Vigna] found that the introduction of Fox News had a small but statistically significant effect on the vote share in Presidential elections between 1996 and 2000. Republicans gained an estimate of between 0.4 and 0.7 percentage points in the towns that broadcast Fox News. They also find that Fox News had a significant effect on Senate vote share and on voter turnout. Their estimates imply that Fox News convinced 3 to 8 percent of its viewers to vote Republican according to a first audience measure, and 11 to 28 percent according to a second, more restrictive audience measure.

Here's some other info on the Fox New Bias:

• Media Matters reviews a series of internal Fox memos.
• A documentary on Fox News - Outfoxed.
• Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting covers Brit Hume (from the way back machine - pre 9/11).
• Journalists have found Fox News to be, far and away, the most conservative news source.
• The public outing of terrorist who, unfortunately, wasn't really a terrorist.
• Osama, oops I meant Obama, attended a Madrassa, as reported by Fox. Nice.

Iraq Political (Non) Progress

As horrific and tragic the daily atrocities in Iraq are, I find the lack of any progress towards political stability the most distressing. As many are saying, until real progress on political reconciliation and economic opportunity are present - along with enhanced security, Iraq (as we know it) is not salvageable. I would go as far to say that winning is not only NOT possible, but it cannot even be envisioned. I ask you in all seriousness, what conditions would allow us bring our troops home? Put simply, what constitutes a win in Iraq? I honestly don't know.

Ten weeks into the Baghdad crackdown, seen as a last effort to avert Iraq from sliding into civil war, there are few signs parliament will pass the laws before it recesses in July.

But Iraqi politicians complain that U.S. domestic politics are dictating Iraq's political progress and said many of the laws that Washington wants to see sail through parliament face deep mistrust among Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and ethnic Kurds.

"If a law is not acceptable to our constituents there may be a backlash. We have to do what we want, not what Washington wants," said Haider Ibadi, a lawmaker from Maliki's Dawa party.

Ibadi cited as an example a plan to allow thousands of former members of Saddam's party to return to public life.

The plan is a longtime demand of once-dominant Sunni Arabs, now the backbone of the insurgency. But some of Maliki's Shi'ite allies, whose community was oppressed under Saddam, are fiercely opposed to having Sunnis back in government and military posts.

"We can't pass a law that gives pensions to ex-Baathists while those who were oppressed (under Saddam) have not received compensation. That is subject to a huge problem," Ibadi said.

A law to share Iraq's oil wealth hit a major hurdle after oil-rich Kurdistan said it objected to its annexes as unconstitutional and threatened to pass its own measure.

So there you have it. The more things stay the same in Iraq, the more they stay the same.

Golbal War on Terror: Can Someone Tell Me What Winning Looks Like?

Color me confused. We invade Iraq to clamp down on terrorists (never mind there were no Saddam connections to terrorists interested in destroying the USA, nor any connection between Saddam and the 9/11 hijackers), yet terrorism is way up.

A State Department report on terrorism due out next week will show a nearly 30 percent increase in terrorist attacks worldwide in 2006 to more than 14,000, almost all of the boost due to growing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Friday.

Remember back when BushCo told us sweet lies that a free Iraq was going to be a shining city on a hill whereby democracies would sprout and flower throughout the Middle East? A veritable dominoes of freedom would topple the despots and sheikdoms. Now we are told by the same that leaving Iraq will cause a chain-reaction of wars and civil strife all over the Middle East.

Never mind that Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority are about as close to chaos as one could reasonably imagine...

Friday Sexscapades

Its Freaky Friday, folks. Randall Tobias, a top State Department official, resigned today after 'fessing up to being a client of the infamous D.C. Madam, Deborah Palfrey. No word yet on Tobias' freaky turn-ons. We may jut have to wait for Palfrey's tell-all. My hunch is a lot of DC big wigs are freaked out big time. After all, its okay to engage in a ruinous war, just as long as the little guy doesn't do too much thinking for the big guy. Don't forget, leg-pressing Pat Robertson will be looking over your shoulder.

Speaking of the little guy doing too much of the thinking, Richard Gere apologized for going Joe Namath on the Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. I can't figure out what's more irritating, India's Prude Police issuing an arrest warrant to both Gere and Shetty, or Gere's Ugly American act. At least Gere apologized. So there you are.

No news is good news for Paul Wolfowitz. As of this writing, he's still clinging to his job as head of the World Bank. Media Lizzy will probably disagree with me, but as we used to say in New Jersey, comb-licking, holey-stockings Wolfowitz is seriously scheevy.

An American Idol contestant is going to become a porn star. Who wudda thunk? Gauging the popularity of the show, I'll bet she sells a lot of videos. Her name? Who knows? I don't care; I can't even be bothered to look up her picture. Why is this in the news?

And finally, in the goods news department:

A settlement in a Portland, Oregon court means victims of childhood sex abuse in the Catholic Church will be compensated with millions of dollars, and secret files relating to pedophile priests in the Portland Archdiocese that span half a century will be publicly disclosed.

Proving that sometimes justice does prevail.

George Tenet: Insta-Swift Boat Victim

Well, that didn't take long for BushCo to Swift Boat ex-Cia Director George Tenet.

[S]enior White House counselor [Dan Bartlett] on Friday dismissed former CIA Director's George Tenet portrait of a Bush administration that rushed to war in Iraq without serious debate. "The president did wrestle with those very serious questions[.]"

...Bartlett ... suggested [Tenet] might have been unaware of the breadth of the prewar debate that led Bush to dismiss other options, such as diplomatic means, for reining in Saddam Hussein.

On one hand, I love seeing Tenet get the Swift Boat treatment; Its richly deserved. OTOH, its instructive yet again to see another former apologist/sycophant grow a conscience.

Update: Tenet already has a retort, as published in today's NYT:

Mr. Tenet described with sarcasm watching an episode of “Meet the Press” last September in which Mr. Cheney twice referred to Mr. Tenet’s “slam dunk” remark as the basis for the decision to go to war.

“I remember watching and thinking, ‘As if you needed me to say ‘slam dunk’ to convince you to go to war with Iraq,’ ” Mr. Tenet writes.

Preview of Tenet Interview on 60 Minutes

I found this at First Draft:

CBS has a preview of Tenet's interview on 60 Minutes this coming Sunday....

Tenet says what bothers him most is that senior administration officials like Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continue using "slam dunk" as a talking point.

"And the hardest part of all this has been just listening to this for almost three years, listening to the vice president go on 'Meet the Press' on the fifth year [anniversary] of 9/11 and say, 'Well, George Tenet said slam dunk' as if he needed me to say 'slam dunk' to go to war with Iraq," he tells Pelley. "And you listen to that and they never let it go. I mean, I became campaign talk. I was a talking point. 'Look at the idiot [who] told us and we decided to go to war.' Well, let's not be so disingenuous … Let's everybody just get up and tell the truth. Tell the American people what really happened."

CBS link - here

The Thursday Skinny

Who would be so mean and nasty as to suggest that the numbers of deaths in Iraq are being purposely underestimated? Of course, the big bad United Nations just wants to make Dubya look bad.

Speaking of making Dubya look bad, the Senate is voting today on a non-binding resolution to bring the troops home - as part the latest emergency mis-spending bill to fund the surge. We do know Dubya is going to veto the bill. Thankfully, the spinach and sugar subsidies were removed.

Paul Wolfowitz wants more time to avoid being summarily shit-canned from the World Bank. He recently hired noted crisis lawyer Robert Bennett. Bennett previously represented Bill Clinton in his battle against Penthouse Model Paula Jones.

John McCain formerly announced his candidacy today up in New Hampshire. 200 people showed up for the event. Okay, it was raining, but are the odds of him winning the reep nomination? Maybe two percent? 200 people. Thats just sad.

Congressman Rick Renzi, crook, reep, Arizona, is going down. Did I mention he's a crook? I hope its a slow, slow fall for Renzi; like a slow-mo train wreck. Dems always face an uphill battle in Arizona, but I think the dems can win this state in 2008. At the very least, the reeps will have to spend big bucks to defend the state.

The military, accepting some blame for making Pat Tillman and Jessica Leach into Captain America and Wonder Woman, took a shot at the media, too. That's like blaming the pit bull after you sicced him on the mailman. Nice way to deflect attention. I want to know when Rummy knew. Oh he knew. He knew.

Finally, Riverbend finally has a new post up. As always, its a must-read.

Lets All Laugh At President Bush

Bush told [a group seniors] there is great pressure in Washington to change principles for the sake of political popularity, but he said he would not.

"It's a struggle for some. It's not for me," he said.

[Bush] showed the group a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. He said Lincoln was unpopular during the Civil War but maintained his belief that all men are created equal.

"Look what would have happened to history" if Lincoln had abandoned that principle, Bush said.

Sleep well, Dubbie. Dream of chicken pluckers and remember the rug.

Iraq is a Broken Stool

Barry McCaffrey was in Kansas City for a speech yesterday. Here's some of what he had to say:

What sort of evolution do you see to the war in Iraq?

We’re in trouble.

The American people walked away from the war. I don’t think they’re coming back. Iraq’s neighbors are bearing no good will toward a favorable outcome in Iraq.

The Iraqi government in power is dysfunctional. There is essentially no province in Iraq where the central government holds sway. It’s not true in the Kurdish areas. … It’s not true in Basra, where there’s a struggle for power among the Shiites, it’s essentially not true in any part of the country.

As has been said, to achieve success in Iraq, a three-legged strategy of increased security, economic progress and political stability must be pursued. I've seen no evidence of any real economic progress or political stability.

Here are some previous comments by McCaffrey:

July 2005:

Iraq rebel attacks will peak in six months and US troops can begin withdrawing in a year, retired US general Barry McCaffrey told Congress Monday.

"January through September 2006 will be the peak period of the insurgency and the bottom rung of the new Iraq," McCaffrey told the Senate foreign relations committee.

December 2006:

Our objective should be a large-scale U.S. military withdrawal within the next 36 months, leaving in place an Iraqi government in a stable and mostly peaceful country that does not threaten its six neighboring states and does not intend to possess weapons of mass destruction.

A Sign of the Coming Apocalypse?

I can't even write about it. Read it here.

Tuesday Tidbits

Pew has a new poll out; headlines the Va Tech massacre hasn't boosted support for gun control. An alternate headline would have read, support for gun control still solid. But hey, that's me. Of note, is there is NO consensus on the cause of these types of shootings.

You saw where the Newster blamed the Va Tech massacre on liberalism. Now Giuliani says we will have another 9/11 if the Dems take the White House. Way to elevate the discussion, guys. Fuckers.

Note to Karl Rove: Karl, you aren't paranoid when people really are out to get you. So, you should be really, really concerned when Scott Bloch wants to hang out inside your colon. Who is Scott Bloch? Merely a Dubya-appointed lawyer with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. Mr. Bloch is investigating the latest Rove shenanigan. Will it stick to Rove this time? Surely his odds are getting leaner each passing controversy.

Well maybe not. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is NOT happy about the Bloch investigation. Not one little bit.

Bloch has come under widespread criticism for his gross mismanagement and politicization of the office. Bloch is currently under investigation by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for his mistreatment of career appointees, who have alleged the exact kind of retaliation that OSC is designed to investigate. OSC employees have alleged that Bloch has tossed out legitimate whistleblower cases to reduce the office backlog.

How very, very BushCo. BushCo really must believe we are THAT stupid.

A list of BushCo scoundrels

From AP:

A rundown of Bush appointees who left under a cloud or face conflict-of-interest allegations

•Scooter Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in a grand jury investigation into the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. His trial also implicated top political adviser Karl Rove and Cheney in a campaign to discredit her husband, Iraq war critic and retired ambassador Joe Wilson (news, bio, voting record). Libby, who plans an appeal, is awaiting a June 5 sentencing.

• Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is fighting to hold onto his job in the face of congressional investigations into his role in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. Two top aides have resigned in the investigation into whether the firings were politically motivated. Emails and other evidence released by the Justice Deparment suggest that Rove played a part in the process. Other e-mails, sent on Republican party accounts, either have disappeared or were erased.

• Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank and a former deputy defense secretary, acknowledged he helped arrange a large pay raise for his female companion when she was transferred to the State Department but remained on the bank payroll. The incident intensified calls at the bank for his resignation.

• J. Steven Griles, an oil and gas lobbyist who became deputy Interior Secretary J., last month became the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, pleading guilty to obstructing justice by lying to a Senate committee about his relationship with the convicted lobbyist. Abramoff repeatedly sought Griles' intervention at Interior on behalf of Indian tribal clients.

• Former White House aide, David H. Safavian, was convicted last year of lying to government investigators about his ties to Abramoff and faces a 180-month prison sentence.

• Roger Stillwell, a former Interior Department official, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for not reporting tickets he received from Abramoff.

• Sue Ellen Wooldridge, the top Justice Department prosecutor in the environmental division until January, bought a $980,000 beach house in South Carolina with ConocoPhillips lobbyist Donald R. Duncan and oil and gas lobbyist Griles. Soon thereafter, she signed an agreement giving the oil company more time to clean up air pollution at some of its refineries. Congressional Democrats have denounced the arrangement.

• Matteo Fontana, a Department of Education official who oversaw the student loan industry, was put on leave last week after disclosure that he owned at least $100,000 worth of stock in a student loan company.

• Claude Allen, who had been Bush's domestic policy adviser, pleaded guilty to theft in making phony returns at discount department stores while working at the White house. He was sentenced to two years of supervised probation and fined $500.

• Philip Cooney, a former American Petroleum Institute lobbyist who became chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, acknowledged in congressional testimony earlier this year that he changed three government reports to eliminate or downplay links between greenhouse gases and global warming. He left in 2005 to work for Exxon Mobil Corp.

• Darleen Druyun, a former Air Force procurement officer, served nine months in prison in 2005 for violating federal conflict-of-interest rules in a deal to lease Boeing refueling tankers for $23 billion, despite Pentagon studies showing the tankers were unnecessary. After making the deal, she quit the government and joined Boeing.

• Eric Keroack, Bush's choice to oversee the federal family planning program, resigned from the post suddenly last month after the Massachusetts Medicaid office launched an investigation into his private practice. He had been medical director of an organization that opposes premarital sex and contraception.

• Lurita Doan, head of the General Services Administration, attended a luncheon at the agency earlier this year with other top GSA political appointees at which Scott Jennings, a top Rove aide, gave a PowerPoint demonstration on how to help Republican candidates in 2008. A congressional committee is investigating whether the remarks violated a federal law that restricts executive-branch employees from using their positions for political purposes.

• Robert W. Cobb, NASA's inspector general is under investigation on charges of ignoring safety violations in the space program. An internal administration review said he routinely tipped off department officials to internal investigations and quashed a report related to the Columbia shuttle explosion to avoid embarrassing the agency. He remains on the job. Only Bush can fire him.

• Julie MacDonald, who oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service but has no academic background in biology, overrode recommendations of agency scientists about how to protect endangered species and improperly leaked internal information to private groups, the Interior Department inspector general said.

Monday catch-up

Just getting back from a short vacation in Tucson to see the folks. Tucson is an interesting place. On one hand it is the liberal epicenter of an otherwise libertarian-to-conservative state. On the other hand, Tucson is a sprawling mess, destined to become another Phoenix. For the uninitiated, Phoenix makes Los Angeles seem positively urban and transit-oriented.

Perhaps I'm not being clear enough, dear reader. Phoenix is mostly an awful shithole. I'm really saddened to see Tucson traipse down the same route. Well, that's life in a state where developers rule the roost.

I can't see how Arizona's growth patterns are sustainable. The largely empty expanse between Phoenix and Tucson is slated to grow by a million or more persons over the next 20 years, making the swath from Phoenix to Tucson - and down to Nogales (Green Valley is also growing rapidly) one ginormous suburban wall of sprawl.

The development patterns are really a shame because Arizona's geography is second to none, and it has a unique culture centered on its desert environs. However, that unique culture is easily missed amidst the national retail chain store heaven that is Arizona today. What's amazing to me is the 48th state will not be celebrating its centennial for another five years.

A link here to a news analysis largely debunking the flypaper strategy. The flypaper strategy supports the idea that all the foreign nuthead jihaddis would converge on Iraq for the big showdown against the big bad U.S. of A. The problems is - for the USA - is they forgot to bring their tanks. The second is there are only 250 or so foreign fighters in Iraq. In either case, the flypaper strategy is as stupid as it is cynical. After all, the US presence in Iraq has displaced over two million Iraqis.

Watch out Sheryl Crow. After taking on Karl Rove at the Washington Press Sycophants Dinner, the reeps slime machine will go after her like O'Reilly on a falafel. Already Drudge links to an article on Crow's view that we should be limited to one toilet paper square per person per visit. Nice way to misrepresent Drudgie; Crow was simply trying to discuss wasteful consumption.

Our space cadet president has "increased confidence" in Gonzo after Friday's hearing. Almost too strange for words.

And finally, CBS radio suspended a pair of shock jocks for making fun of Chinese on-air. Maybe CBS would have done so anyway, but I have to think that the Imus debacle has now limited what constitutes acceptable speech these days. In general I consider myself fairly libertarian on free speech issues; I would never say idiots JV and Elvis don't have a right to say pretty much what they want. However, I also don't like having to listen to asshats like this on the public airwaves. Hat's off to CBS for suspending these two idiots. Simply getting dolts like this off the airwaves elevates the public discourse.

I am hopeful the Imus affair has finally cast a light on what goes on on AM radio these days. Is it possible to be compelling without resorting to ethnic and racial slurs and blatant misogyny? I sure hope so. And I can't wait for the day when the real demons of the airwaves - hatemongers like Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh - get their comeuppance.

If you are a Republican, what has you most worried?

Is it:

A. Dubya's wacko speech about polls that go poof, chicken plucking and rug remembering?

B. Daily congressional FBI raids

C. Gonzo's grilling

D. Iraq: FUBAR within Enigma

E. BushCo pissing off seniors by threatening a veto over prescription drug plan

F. Wolfowitz on the hot seat

G. No heir-in-waiting for POTUS nomination

H. Emailgate

Karl Rove and the Big Lie

We usually associate Dick Cheney with the Big Lie; that is, the Saddam-OBL-9/11 connection. Karl Rove also likes telling the big lie. He gave a speech in Akron yesterday. The was a Q/A afterwards:

Rove was asked whose idea it was to start a pre-emptive war in Iraq.

"I think it was Osama bin Laden's", Rove replied.

Every single rationale for war - except that Saddam was a bad, bad man - was proved false time and again. Yet, Rove still spouts the big lie, and the kool-aid drinkers swig it down.

John McCain is insane in the membrain

Johnny Mac was in South Carolina yesterday. From Drudge:

At the campaign rally, McCain was asked if an attack on Iran is in the works, the GEORGETOWN TIMES reports.

McCain began his answer by changing the words to a popular BEACH BOYS song.

“Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,” he sang to the tune of Barbara Ann.

I guess this is the kind of rhetoric (lyric?) that one needs to get reep primary votes in the South. OTOH, this is completely demented. I really think that McCain is losing it.

Iraq is getting worse - not better

Hard as it is to imagine. Over 100 dead today. Numerous bombings and incidents and atrocities. Saddam was overthrown and executed. A 1,000 mini-Saddams sprouted in his place.

For details go here.

Also, BBC has an excellent (but disturbing) interactive map of Baghdad violence.

Richard Perle on Crossroads/PBS: WTF?

What the hell was PBS thinking by giving Richard Perle an infomercial last night?

More on the gun control conversation

Yesterday, I posted that the horrible tragedy at VaTech represented an opportunity to discuss control. It appears the right wants nothing to do with such a conversation; they think gun control sucks and want to keep the dirty gummint off our gun racks.

Here are a pair of comments I got when I posted on Digg yesterday.

Perhaps if the gun control movement wasn't a pack of blatantly dishonest demagogues leading masses of ignorant, emotion driven dupes threatening (and often acting on the threat) of destroying liberty and persecuting the tens of millions of law-abiding, gun-owning, Americans, we could have a civil conversation. But I doubt that.

And this pithy reply

Sure, but it'll be short. The first time you disagree with me, I'll pull out my 9mm and blow you away.

Instapundit blames gun control laws. If only professors and students were packing, so many people would be alive.

I somehow think these are mainstream right wing views. Because it gets even loonier:

Early details about the horrific school shooting at Virginia Tech strongly indicate that these events represent a Columbine-style black-op that will be exploited in the coming days to push for mass gun control and further turning our schools into prisons.

So, like I said its time for a conversation. My POV is hunt your little ass off with rifles. OTOH, I don't like or see the need for handguns in our society. However, with - what is the number? - 100,000,000 guns in circulation, it will be tough to really do much of anything. At least until there is political will to do so.

Did I mention political will? That's something the dems have in short order right now when it comes to gun control. This cowardly stance seems odd. Polls show strong majorities - or pluralities favor tougher restrictions on guns. Look at the numbers - sentiment on gun control is consistent over time.

The problem is gun owners care more about keeping their guns than gun control advocates do about limiting the supply of guns and ammo. Gun owners are widely credited with many big electoral wins over the years, such as when George Deukmejian upset Tom Bradley for the California governorship in 1982.

Again, I'm trying to start a responsible conversation here. The right wingers seem to care only for polemics. Its really too bad.

George Tenet's book is coming

And the word is BushCo won't be pleased. From Al Kamen at WaPo:

The drums have begun sounding for the long-awaited book by former CIA director George Tenet, in which he gives his take on pre-9/11 days and on Saddam's huge cache of weapons of mass destruction.

And the drums are saying that Tenet is not going to get too many Christmas cards from Vice President Cheney's office after they read "At the Center of the Storm." Folks from down the river at the Pentagon, including former deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz-- a guy who's already going through a rough patch -- and former defense undersecretary Douglas Feith, might also get some heartburn.

Former secretary of state Colin Powell comes out fine. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was President Bush's key adviser in engineering the Iraq invasion, doesn't come out so fine. Not fine at all.

I'm looking forward to the April 29 60 Minutes spot.

Pew Poll on Knowledge of Public Affairs

Click on image to view


A typically fascinating poll was released by the Pew Center over the weekend, this one covering knowledge of public affairs. An interesting result is Daily Show viewers are far more knowledgeable of pubic affairs than are viewers of, oh say, FOX. Everyone surprised by that can stop reading now.

Some demographic differences are understandable - more educated people are more informed, as are richer folks. Older people are generally more informed than younger people. I didn't know how much more men consume news than women, though.

I'm not surprised that Northerners are more informed than Southerners.

Here's the analysis.

Here's the questionnaire.

Take the quiz.

Can we at least have a conversation about gun control?

In light of today's horrible massacre at Va Tech.

After all, there was a major US circuit court ruling recently that finally, finally sets the stage for the big SCOTUS showdown.

My complete sympathies go out to everyone on campus, their loved ones and the entire State of Virginia.

However, BushCo spokeshead comments today made me want to retch. While expressing sorrow over the events at Virginia Tech, Dana Perino noted:

The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed.

As always, BushCo has their priorities screwed on exactly wrong. This IS the time to at least have a discussion about gun control. I'm not interested in a polemic, and I want to honor those killed and injured today. However, there is surely something good that might come out of this. Randomly, increased safety training, better registration of guns and ammo, our violent society should at least be discussed.

Surely, there is something to be learned - more than the idiotic and cold-hearted comments from the administration.

Death of the neocons: Part 2 (continued)

Richard Perle and Wolf square off on CNN. See the clip for yourself here at Raw Story. My take: Perle is shameless; may he rot in hell.

General John Sheehan: I don't want to be no stinking war czar

Recently, Dubya decided he needed a war czar to oversee both Afghanistan and Iraq, ostensibly called the White House implementation manager. Three high-ranking generals were offered the position and said thanks, but uh, no thanks.

John J. Sheehan, USMC ret., explains why in a WaPo editorial today. He writes:

The [most important] strategy [in Iraq] takes a larger view of the region and the desired end state. Simply put, where does Iraq fit in a larger regional context? The United States has and will continue to have strategic interests in the greater Middle East well after the Iraq crisis is resolved and, as a matter of national interest, will maintain forces in the region in some form. The Iraq invasion has created a real and existential crisis for nearly all Middle Eastern countries and created divisions among our traditional European allies, making cooperation on other issues more difficult. In the case of Iran, we have allowed Tehran to develop more policy options and tools than it had a few years ago. Iran is an ideological and destabilizing threat to its neighbors and, more important, to U.S. interests.

Of the three strategies in play, the third is the most important but, unfortunately, is the least developed and articulated by this administration.

So there you have it. General Sheehan doesn't believe the administration has a plan for winning in Iraq. I believe him because I frankly have no idea what a win in Iraq will look like.

Iraq: 289 dead in one day

From the Sac Bee:

Two months into the U.S.-led Baghdad Security Plan, at least 289 people were killed and injured across Iraq on Saturday, including 36 dead in a car bomb attack in the holy Shiite city of Karbala.

And the powers to be have decreed we have to wait another Friedman* to determine whether the surge has succeeded or failed.




*Freidmans are defined here.

Neocon deathwatch: part 2

Part 2 on the individuals of a dead school of political thought - the neocons.

Richard "The Prince of Darkness" Perle. This guy really screwed the pooch. He was a major cheerleader for war, and now points his finger directly back at BushCo after they turned Iraq into a steaming mess. In 2002, Perle infamously predicted only 40,000 troops would be needed to overthrow Saddam.

Perle's hubris hit a high water mark right before the invasion, when he wrote:

Saddam Hussein's reign of terror is about to end. He will go quickly, but not alone: in a parting irony, he will take the UN down with him.

Perle served in the administration on the Defense Policy Board, when he tendered his resignation in 2004.

"We are now approaching a long presidential election campaign, in the course of which issues on which I have strong views will be widely discussed and debated," Perle wrote. "I would not wish those views to be attributed to you or the president at any time, and especially not during a presidential campaign."

Perle didn't return a telephone call seeking comment on his resignation, and a Pentagon spokesman would confirm only that he had resigned.

By 2006, Perle was ripping BushCo on the job in Iraq in a famous Vanity Fair article.

Perle and I [writer David Rose] [met] at his home outside Washington, D.C. ... Perle is unrecognizable as the confident hawk who, as chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, had invited the exiled Iraqi dissident Ahmad Chalabi to its first meeting after 9/11. "The levels of brutality that we've seen are truly horrifying, and I have to say, I underestimated the depravity[.]" ...

According to Perle, who left the Defense Policy Board in 2004, this unfolding catastrophe has a central cause: devastating dysfunction within the administration of President George W. Bush. Perle says, "The decisions did not get made that should have been. They didn't get made in a timely fashion, and the differences were argued out endlessly.… At the end of the day, you have to hold the president responsible.… I don't think he realized the extent of the opposition within his own administration, and the disloyalty."

Perle followed up on that with a NewsMax interview in February of this year. I've highlighted a few items - the interview is longish - but telling about the dark soul of this man.

[P]erhaps folks would better appreciate Richard Perle ... discussing how we got where we are in Iraq with the best and brightest leading the way.


Perle: We just don't have the best and the brightest. I think Colin Powell was a disaster. He never liked the president's policies. He did almost nothing to get them implemented. Condi [former head of the National Security Council and now Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice] was in way over her head from the beginning, and the president gave much too much weight to her views. The administration was full of people even in the White House at the National Security Council who were hostile to the president's policies.


NewsMax: On the subject of your "America at a Crossroads" segment for PBS: In one of your filmed confrontations with protestors on the National Mall, you tell a woman, "I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm not the president." You're saying to her that you are not the architect of the war and you didn't make the decisions. But you were a powerhouse on the Defense Policy Board.


Perle: As a matter of fact, I was not at all happy with the conduct of the board. Now people can differ about what approach would have been more effective. I think we got ourselves, unfortunately, into an occupation [of Iraq] that we could have avoided. We could have avoided it by turning things over to the Iraqis more or less immediately, which is what I was arguing for.


NewsMax: How do you see it playing out on Capitol Hill?


Perle: The House and the Democratic leadership have decided to make Iraq a partisan political issue. They are using it to rally Democrats, and it seems to me that they have lost all sight of the national interest.

NewsMax: Now that Al Franken has declared for the U.S. Senate...

Perle: ...Franken was hung up on the fact that we didn't find stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, and that whole thing gets a little tedious after a while.


The president didn't create [the intelligence organizations]. He made the mistake of keeping [former CIA chief George] Tenet in place, but that is another matter.

So, in the end, Perle is one of the key architects of the war, yets minimizes his own role - certainly after Iraq turns into one hell of a FUBAR wrapped in an enigma. And not only is he saddled with the burden of his gross mistakes, he turns around and blames BushCo for the problems.

I suppose that Perle really believes that the Iraq war - if run competently - could have turned out far better than it has. What a terrible misreading of the situation. But these kinds of misreadings are why the NeoCons are consigned to the kitty litter box of history.

Perle Status: Richard Perle is dead to George Dubya Bush.

Iraq: Tallies of the dead since the surge

AP reports that civilian deaths in Baghdad are way down since the surge began.

Figures compiled by the AP from Iraqi police reports show that 1,586 civilians were killed in Baghdad between the start of the offensive and Thursday.

That represents a sharp drop from the 2,871 civilians who died violently in the capital during the two months that preceded the security crackdown.

Outside the capital, 1,504 civilians were killed between Feb. 14 and Thursday and 1,009 were killed during the two previous months, the AP figures show.

In addition, deaths to US military forces are up substantially.

War supporters are painting this as good news in the sense that ALL of the news is not bad. However, I'm hard pressed to find any examples of real good news in Iraq recently. Over 3,000 civilians have died since the surge began. I would call that only somewhat less catastrophic.

Wolf, Is Anna still dead?

Let's ask Wolf...

Neocon deathwatch: Part 1

Reading the news these days is to read of the political deaths of a whole caste within the political class - the neocons.

Let's go through the list. I won't make any claims of being comprehensive, so this list will be updated semi-regularly. Send me your tips on other neocon political cadavers. I'll be sure to credit you when I add to the list.

Karl "the cat" Rove. Karl is on political death watch once again, but he previously escaped the claws of prosecutor Fitzgerald in the Plamegate case, and he may lube up and slip out once again.

The latest is Rove's deleted emails. Dan Froomkin covers the story. This is from Rove's lawyer today:

Karl Rove's lawyer on Friday dismissed the notion that President Bush's chief political adviser intentionally deleted his own e-mails from a Republican-sponsored server, saying Rove believed the communications were being preserved in accordance with the law.

Rove status: In the hospital, Doctor-induced coma.

Paul "comb-licker" Wolfowitz. Architect of the failed Bush Doctrine, and huge supporter of the Iraq War. Wolfowitz testified at the House Budget Committee on February 27, 2003:

There has been a good deal of comment - some of it quite outlandish - about what our postwar requirements might be in Iraq. Some of the higher end predictions we have been hearing recently, such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq, are wildly off the mark. It is hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam's security forces and his army - hard to imagine.

Wolfie parlayed that spectacular error that cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars, untold deaths, massive destruction, general mayhem, and the rise of a 1,000 mini-Saddams into the World Bank presidency (huh?). However, Wolfie is in trouble:

Staff at the World Bank have demanded the resignation of Paul Wolfowitz, the bank's president, after he admitted authorising large pay rises for his Libyan-born partner that took her salary to $200,000.

Wolfowitz status: In the hospital, on life support.

This series will be updated regularly.

Who is in charge of Iraq, anyway?

Articles like this make my blood boil. Four years into the Stupid Pointless War (Iraq; I don't criticize the war in Afghanistan) and we get this:

WASHINGTON: Four years after the fall of Baghdad, the White House is once again struggling to solve an old problem: Who is in charge of running Iraq policy?

...

[A]dministration officials confirmed Wednesday that the White House had sounded out a series of generals to fill the post of coordinator for Iraq and Afghanistan. There is talk of expanding the authority of the job and elevating the title of its new occupant, after the incumbent, Meghan O'Sullivan, a deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan, leaves the post after nearly three years in Iraq-related posts at the National Security Council.

So far, there have been no takers and the White House says it is still weighing options about how to reconfigure what may be one of the most thankless jobs in Washington.

If you are wondering who Meghan O'Sullivan is, the Nation provides the skinny (from October 2006):

O'Sullivan is ... a protégé of Richard Haass, who left the State Department as policy director in July 2003 and became president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and she is neither a neocon nor an ideologue. She has even earned the suspicion of conservatives for having proposed engaging with Iran and for suggesting--before 9/11--that it is unproductive to brand a state a "rogue regime." The problem is that O'Sullivan, who is in her mid-30s, is not an expert in the field.

I can see Dubya at the podium now. 'Meghan, you've done a helluva job.'

Iraq is turning fugly

Hard as it is to imagine, but the situation in Iraq is getting still worse. A nuthead jihaddi detonated a suicide bomb in the Iraqi parliament cafe - inside the Green Zone. At least two members of parliament were killed in the blast.

In another atrocity, a major bridge in Baghdad was destroyed. The Al-Sarafiya bridge was blown up by a truck bomb which was abandoned in the middle of the bridge causing huge damage. 10 people were killed, 30 injured and still more are missing as cars fell into the Tigris River.

Is it time for another super surge?

Gary Kamiya on why the media failed

Gary Kamiya, writng in Salon, has an important article on why the media failed. He leads with:

It's no secret that the period of time between 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq represents one of the greatest collapses in the history of the American media. Every branch of the media failed, from daily newspapers, magazines and Web sites to television networks, cable channels and radio.

Kamiya's article is excellent; I highly recommend this to be standard reading for anyone who consumes news. I've carped on this subject here - a lot. So, I'm not going to recite his writing - you can get that from the source.

I did however, want to take a moment to at least give some applause the heroes of the media, those who spoke truth to power. From Kariya:

Not all was lost. Some of the best breaking commentary was on the Internet, on blogs like Juan Cole's "Informed Comment" and Helena Cobban's "Just World News," but these sites had a limited readership. There were some notable exceptions on the print side, like the superb reporting of Knight Ridder's Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel, who aggressively reported out the Bush administration's bogus claims about the "threat" posed by Saddam Hussein. The Washington Post's Walter Pincus also questioned Bush administration claims about WMD (his big pre-war story on this subject, after almost being killed, was relegated to page A-17). And the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh and Mark Danner, writing for the New York Review of Books, also distinguished themselves with excellent coverage of Abu Ghraib, following the thread that led directly from the blood-spattered rooms outside Baghdad to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

If you don't know these authors (and I will admit I do not read Pincus' column), its time to do so.

The conundrum that is Iraq today

Huge protests against the American occupation were held in Iraq yesterday. Speigal on-line cites a story from a "center-right" German newspaper to summarize the situation:

Four years after the end of the Baath regime, most Iraqis are in no mood to celebrate. If one believes the latest surveys, more than three quarters of the population want the Americans and their allies to withdraw, and they have never been so pessimistic about the future. The Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is cleverly using anger about the lack of drinking water, power cuts, continuing insecurity and economic decline to his advantage. Hardly anything happens in Iraq's domestic politics without the young cleric. In Baghdad he has long advanced to the position of a kingmaker.

So, how does BushCo respond? With this (from E&P):

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters [anti-American demonstrations] only underscore ... how much "progress" the U.S. is making in that country.

Four years since the fall of Baghdad, Iraq "is now a place where people can freely gather and express their opinions, and that was something they could not do under Saddam." Johndrove said, traveling with President Bush to Arizona.

[T]he Associated Press reported this afternoon: ..."Demonstrators ripped apart American flags and tromped across a Stars and Stripes rug flung on the road between the two holy cities for the huge march."

It must be nice in the bubble that is the beautiful White House. If only BushCo could learn to better catapault the propaganda.

On a side note, I would love to see the right-wingers go ape-shit over some Iraqi morans who decided to burn the US flag. After all, they sure found - and were summarily outraged by - the dolts who burned the US flag at US peace rallies.

Imus: Its time to retire to the ranch

I wasn't going to comment. I really wasn't. Why? I'm a RU grad and am proud as hell for the Lady Knights (Lady Knights?) for their stellar play and all-around good story. I haven't been posting sporting stuff here, so the last thing I wanted to do was desecrate a great story with Imus's stupid, stupid remarks.

I can take the New Jersey jokes; I'll even swallow a good Rutgers joke. But you went too damned far. These women are exemplar members of the community. They are not fuck up losers. They are NOT nappy headed hos; far from it.

Imus has a long history in the radio business. He generally speaks truth to power. I don't always agree with him, and think he's kind of an asshat most of the time. He does a lot of good things with his charities.

That's all nice, and I've got the voilin out. But too damned bad; Imus. Retire already. Go back to New Mexico.

Or else. You DO know that James Gandolfini is an alum.

Right winger attacks bishop for being wobbly on Iran

Yes, Iran. According to Kathryn Jean Lopez:

The Roman Catholic bishop who oversees the armed forces has provoked fury by praising the Iranian leadership for its "forgiveness" and "act of mercy" in freeing the 15 British sailors and marines last week.

The Bishop of the Forces, the Rt Rev Tom Burns, said that the religious beliefs of the Iranians had played a large part in their decision to release the hostages after holding them for more than two weeks.

His words were echoed by a leading Anglican figure, the Right Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, who said Iran had acted within the "moral and spiritual tradition of their country" and contrasted this with Britain's "free-floating attitudes".

Bishop Burns, who ministers to the 40,000 Catholics and their families who are members of the armed forces, said the decision to release the captives had demonstrated "faith in a forgiving God".

Hmmm. I guess that Lopez's spiritual advisers need to be toting bazookas, and generally inflaming situations. In support of Ms. Lopez's desire for more militaristic spirituality, I hope she enjoys the decidedly more dangerous Jesus pictured above.

Ford CEO passed on opportunity to let Bush to blow himself AND Cheney up

Dubya was at the White House last week, admiring a new hydrogen-electric car when he nearly blew himself up by trying put an electrical cord into the hydrogen tank. The Ford CEO saved the day when he stopped Dubya just in time.

When I first read the article, I was gratified because the prospect of President Cheney is even scarier than the VP of 24. However, the picture shows that Cheney was standing right NEXT to Dubya. Dubya almost offed himself and Cheney.

To think we were THAT close to a Pelosi presidency. From the article:

Mulally followed Bush out to the car, he noticed someone had left the cord lying at the rear of the vehicle, near the fuel tank.

"I just thought, 'Oh my goodness!' So, I started walking faster, and the President walked faster and he got to the cord before I did. I violated all the protocols. I touched the President. I grabbed his arm and I moved him up to the front," Mulally said. "I wanted the president to make sure he plugged into the electricity, not into the hydrogen This is all off the record, right?"

I've been thinking hard about buying a more environmentally benign auto when it gets time to replace the Ronmobile, but I'm not so sure about a hydrogen-electric plug-in. If its really that easy to blow the damn thing up, I may wait for something else - like the cars that run on french fry oil. I could simultaneously load up on fried food and help the environment.

Monday is 4th anniversary of the fall of Baghdad

So, big celebrations are slated, right?

Uh, no. There will be a ban on all vehicles until Tuesday to deter would-be suicide bombers.

I am not otherwise criticizing or commenting on the car ban, per se. If it saves lives, the plan is a good idea. Unfortunately, car bans do not help commerce or the economy.

I would have been heartened if some important political advance had also been noted. Former PM Ayed Allawi is trying to form a new government to replace the ineffectual Maliki, However, I can't see how a banding of Shiite secularists, Sunnis and Kurds can garner enough support to win a no-confidence vote over al-Maliki.

Similarly, Maliki's effrots to oust Sadr from the ruling coalition also appear doomed. A new round of elections might re-jigger the political chemistry. However, there would certainly appear to be a round of political chaos. Iraq simply can't afford that right now.

Think of a three-legged stool. For Iraq to get on track, all legs must be strong. The legs are political stability, economic stability, and national/personal security. I can understand that each leg must each be built, but there will be no sitting on the stool until all three legs are built.

Joe Klein: Monday morning quarterback

A most interesting column from Joe Klein. He writes:

When Bush['s] hyper-partisanship has proved to be a travesty of governance and a comprehensive failure. I've tried to be respectful of the man and the office, but the three defining sins of the Bush Administration--arrogance, incompetence, cynicism--are congenital: they're part of his personality. They're not likely to change. And it is increasingly difficult to imagine yet another two years of slow bleed with a leader so clearly unfit to lead.

Wow. That's pretty tough stuff. These are thoughts I agree with, and I'm sure many fellow liberal (and conservative) bloggers may also agree.

So, we should be applauding Klein. Here is an influential MSM member forcefully speaking truth to power. I've complained bitterly about the how MSM are stenographers to power who would rather trade jokes and sip martinis with the powerful than hold the light of truth to them.

My problem is Joe Klein's history. Matt Taibbi recently excoriated Klein. Taibbi has known Klein for a long time, and rips him for the very point of stenographing the powerful.

Oh yes, Klein did write in April 2003 that the invasion of Iraq was a "big gamble". Back to Taibbi:

[A]ccording to Klein, he's been against the war since that September 2002 column[.]... Except for one thing -- while Klein in that column did point out many things that could go wrong in Iraq, and suggested that we all give the invasion a good thinking over before we signed off on it ("this should cause us to pause, slow down, talk this over"), he didn't actually say we shouldn't go. In fact, he would say just the opposite six months later, on Meet the Press:


MR. KLEIN: ... This is a really tough decision. War may well be the right decision at this point. In fact, I think it--it's--it--it probably is.

RUSSERT: Now that's twice you've said that: 'It's the right war.' You believe it's the wrong time. Why do you think it's the right war?

Mr. KLEIN: Because sooner or later, this guy has to be taken out. Saddam has--Saddam Hussein has to be taken out."

Now, it is gratifying to see Klein go off on BushCo; I wish more of the MSM would go off on BushCo. However, important members of the MSM - Bob Woodward, Tim Russert, Tom Freidman, Joe Klien, et al, had their chance - a once in a generation chance - to speak truth to power at an incredibly important time in our nation's history. These men had a chance to influence history, rather than simply swim downstream with the current.

The best I can say now about Joe Klein is an adept Monday Morning Quarterback.

John McCain: A soft touch down back to reality

Johnnie "do the stroll" McCain returned late this week from the alternative universe where Iraqis shower Americans with candy and flowers. The New York Times covers the flip-floppery on-line:

After a week of public pummeling, Mr. McCain, one of the Republican candidates for the 2008 nomination, now says he misspoke about the situation on the ground in Baghdad. In an interview to be broadcast on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Mr. McCain said he wished he had been more measured in his remarks.

“Of course I am going to misspeak and I’ve done it on numerous occasions and I probably will do it in the future,” he told CBS correspondent Scott Pelley. “I regret that when I divert attention to something I said from my message but you know, that’s just life.”

I, along with thousands of bloggers and those Iraqi merchants (who were described as "astonished" when appraised of Johnnie Mac's initial sunny comments) gave McCain the business over the stupidity of those remarks. McCain took the heat especially heavily because he is a top tier presidential candidate, but moreso because he's the self-proclaimed straight talk express.

That sure was some straight talk, eh? Johnnie Mac's initial comments were right out of a Dick Cheney speech - That's just how Looney Tunes he sounded. So, it was a great deal of relief I read McCain's new comments. I may not particularly like McCain, but I do greatly prefer that top tier presidential candidates be of sound minds.

He certainly does now sound grounded. Oh, of course he hasn't budged one inch on his stance to the war. But, at least he has left Limbaughland and returned to the reality-based community (or some far flung burg - somewhere in the galaxy).

Where ever McCain turns these days, things turn into gooey dog turds. Its like the Midas Touch, only reversed. Call it the Dubya Touch. Think of any important issue over the past two and half years. If Dubya is for it, campaigns for, uses his bully pulpit, then public support craters. Now McCain has the Dubya Touch - in spades.

This Dubya Touch effect is purely McCain's own doing. He decided a long time ago that he was going to run between Dubya's butt cheeks. I always thought it was an insane strategy given his history with Dubya, but McCain's pollsters probably told him Dubya was popular within the Republican Party.

The Straight-Talk Express is now the Flip-Flopping Train That Couldn't. Republicans hate McCain. Dems have grown to hate him, and I would be willing to bet that Independents are at best scratching their heads.

Let's see if Johnnie Mac' new Phoenix Rising campaign strategy is going to work. It did for Kerry in 2004, but that was a far different situation. Right now, the McCain campaign is on life support. He doesn't seem like such a top-tier candidate anaymore.

Happy Easter to Bill Donohue

Raise your hand if you are sick to death of Bill Donohue. This guy makes Ann Coulter seem sane. No really.

Bill, if you are going to get pissed, its probably best not to let the South Park dudes in on your rant. Can you please go die in a fire?

My suggestion about this asshat is the same with Ann Coulter. Ignore.

Rules of Life

Friday night at the keyboard, and I've assembled the of rules of life. I'm not religious, but I do try to have a moral creed.

1. Don't be stupid.

2. Have an attitude of gratitude.

3. Do your best - and have fun.

4. Live the golden rule.

5. Go the extra mile.

6. Don't let the bastards get you down.

7. Do something nice that doesn't directly benefit you.

Dick Cheney spouts the big lie again

Dick Cheney is once again spouting his lies about the supposed link between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein link. What's so laughable - and telling - is Cheney told the whopper to Rush Limbaugh on-air yesterday.

[Abu Musab al-Zarqawi]He took up residence there before we ever launched into Iraq, organized the al-Qaida operations inside Iraq before we even arrived on the scene and then, of course, led the charge for Iraq until we killed him last June. As I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq.

Is there any wonder why such a significant portion of the population believes in the fairy-tale of the Saddam-AQ link? Hell, no. Not when the kool-aid drinkers are newsing up on a steady diet Rush and Fox and Friends. This kind of information gathering is like trying to lose weight on the McDonalds Diet.

So, what would make big Dick spout the big lie again? Just the release of a declassified Pentagon report that AQ and the Saddam government were not working together before the invasion. Here's a PDF of the report.

Congressmen rip Bush over Syria

If you recall, BushCo has been ripping on Nancy Pelosi over her trip to Syria. Congress fired back yesterday:

I don't care what the administration says on this. You gotta do what you think is in the best interest of your country.

Said one congressman. From another:

That's an important message to realize: We have tensions, but we have two functioning embassies.

And finally, from yet another:

[Syrian diplomacy] is an area where we would disagree with the administration. It doesn't mean you're weak in your policy or that there's no problems ... We just wanted to let them know that the lines of communication are open and if we can find some common ground on some issues we need to go forward on that.

Who are these freedom-hating, french fry-eating, surrender monkey, Perrier-sipping Democrats? Was it Pelosi? Barney Frank? Maxine Waters? Who said these treasonous words?

Ummm..... These were Republicans, as quoted in Syria yesterday. In order: Darrell Isa, Frank Wolf and Robert Aderholt.

Funny, I didn't hear the Great Uniter criticize these guys.

The big Dick is watching over Bush

I'm glad I'm not doing drugs while pondering this pic.

Break out the french fries, brie and croissants!

An important new poll is out. I'll jump right to it:

Public Agenda and its partner Foreign Affairs today made public the fourth edition of the Confidence in U.S. Foreign Policy Index (CFPI)...

The Spring 2007 Anxiety Indicator stands at 137, well above the neutral
mid-point of 100 and a seven point increase since September 2006. "The
Anxiety Indicator is moving closer to the 150 mark, the 'red zone' that to
me would signal a full blown crisis of public confidence," said Public
Agenda Chairman Daniel Yankelovich. Full report at: publicagenda.org/CFPI4

-- Public support for military solutions in many scenarios is virtually
off the table for most of the public. In dealing with Iran, support
for possible military action is in the single digits (8 percent)

-- 70 percent say that criticism that the United States has been too
quick to resort to war is at least partly justified (31 percent say
it's "totally justified"). On what the government must do to fight
terrorism, 67 percent say we should put more emphasis on diplomatic
and economic methods, while 27 percent say more emphasis on military
efforts

-- 84 percent say "initiating military force only when we have the
support of our allies" should be important to our foreign policy (51
percent say "very important")

Great news, Francophiles! Break out the Croque Monsieur, Perrier with a twist, and a nice bottle of Burgundy for lunch. Yes, in honor of the French, go and take a three-hour lunch.

Bill "Nostradumbass" Kristol may want to join you. He needs a three hour lunch. And he needs to get drunk. Just be ready lots of tears and self-pity.

Here are links to the full report, and analysis by the authors.

Duncan Hunter plays to his base: Blackwater

Yesterday, I wrote about how Tom Tancredo is working to wrap up the Dog Chapman vote. Today, we learn that Duncan Hunter is playing to the mercenary crowd. Raw Story covers the story where Blackwater wants to turn a chicken farm into a mercenary training camp for Blackwater. They report former California congressman and current presidential candidate Duncan Hunter is a client of Blackwater. They also raise questions about whether Hunter was lobbying for the project.

So, that got me to thinking about Duncan Hunter. Who is he? What does he stand for? Here's a recent clarifying editorial from Michael Reagan (Ronnie's son, the conservative one):

Rep. Duncan Hunter, former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and now its ranking Republican member, appeared on the Hannity and Colmes show on Fox, and I was astonished to hear him castigated for failing to see that our troops in Iraq needed equipment[,] ... specifically ... on [the] matter of the alleged lack of body armor for our troops in Iraq[.]

Ignored were certain inconvenient facts such as the amount of body armor that was available under Bill Clinton, which was zero. Today ... thanks to Duncan Hunter's work ... the armed services have one million sets of body armor. That's one million!

Wow! Duncan Hunter supports the troops! Iraq equipment shortages must be blamed on Bill Clinton. Okay, check.

Chris Reed is a conservative op/ed-er San Diego U-T. He must be a huge Hunter fan, having gotten to view him close up over a long time, particularly as Reed gives Hunter the honorific of NOT being a Reagan Republican (in case anyone missed it, reeps have no interest in being Reagan Republicans anymore - well, except maybe the folks on Fox and Friends, but I digress):

Periodically, I get e-mails from supporters of the presidential candidacy of Alpine Rep. Duncan Hunter who express disbelief, befuddlement or fury, or a mix of all three, at my flat contention that he is a populist demagogue and anything but a principled conservative. These folks cannot fathom any talk that he's not free-trade, small-government Ronald Reagan reincarnated.

Okay, Hunter is not Ronald Reagan Reincarnated. Check.

Here's a synopsis of Hunter on Iraq (from Congressopedia):

On November 18, 2005, in response to Pennsylvania congressman John Murtha's resolution to terminate the deployment of United States forces in Iraq, to redeploy the forces already involved in Iraq, and to "pursue security and stability in Iraq through diplomacy",Hunter and other Republicans drafted a two-sentence counter-resolution which read:

"Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately.

"Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately."

Democrats condemned the bill as a political stunt. As expected, it was soundly defeated, 403-3, in the House of Representatives.

Okay, Hunter is simultaneously pro-blood bath, but wants our troops home now. That's presidential timber; Oh, yeah!

What else. Hunter hates illegal immigrants. Hates the Chinese government. Runs strongly on the Three G's platform (Guns, God and Gays).

On the other hand, Hunter batted oh for 19 on the Jeff Flake amendments to stop earmarking. However, when he was a congressman, Hunter did at least make his earmark requests public. From the Sunlight Foundation:

Hunter has decided that [earmark] transparency is necessary to defend the practice. Transparency also allows me to point out that two of his earmarks are to one of his biggest campaign donors, Titan, Inc. For more information Hunter's ties to Titan -- a very controversial defense contractor -- check out this blog post by Jason Vest at POGO.

So, that's it on Hunter, the dream candidate of military contractors and mercs. Which brings me back to Tancredo and his support for Dog Chapman. Bounty hunters and mercenaries. Seems like a similar demographic. Could Tancredo be a stalking horse for Hunter? Or the other way around? Will either candidate top 1% in any Republican Primary?

New York Times on global climate change winners and losers

The New York Times has an amazing interactive graphic of global climate change winners and losers. For the most part, Europe and North America, Siberia and Japan do well.

Saharan Africa, Southeast Africa and Latin America are expected to take it in the shorts.

Have a look-see.

Michael Ware: Drunken McCain Heckler?

Or not?

For anyone who missed it, Drudge issued this post:

During a live press conference in Baghdad, Senators McCain and Graham were heckled by CNN reporter Michael Ware. An official at the press conference called Ware’s conduct “outrageous,” saying, “here you have two United States Senators in Bag[h]dad giving first-hand reports while Ware is laughing and mocking their comments. I’ve never witnessed such disrespect. This guy is an activist not a reporter.”

Drudge went on to note that Ware tries to stay drunk as often as possible while in Iraq. All in all, pretty damning stuff - if its true. The charge is fishy because there is no footage of the heckling, only an unnamed source.

Ware appeared on TV w/ Soledad O'Brien, and had this exchange:

O’BRIEN: Let me ask you a question. there was a report that said you were heckling and you were laughing during the senator's press conference. Is that true?

WARE: Well, let's bear in mind that this is a report that was leaked by an unnamed official of some kind to a blog, to somewhere on the internet. No one has gone and put their name forward. We certainly haven't heard Senator McCain say anything about it or any of his staff have come forward to say anything about it. I did not heckle the senator. Indeed, I didn't say a word. I didn't even ask a question. in fact, when I raised my hand to ask a question, the press conference abruptly ended, so what I would suggest is that anyone who has any queries about whether I heckled, watch the videotape of the press conference.

Raw Story has footage from the press conference. There is no evidence that Ware heckled McCain in any way. The whole thing reeks of bull shit. This is how many politicians - especially reeps - crush their opponents, with innuendos and outright lies.

Michael Ware get my utmost respect. He is no stenographer to power. I hope the rest of the press corps rises to his defense.

Tom Tancredo for President?

So, Tom Tancredo is running for president. Apparently, the winds of anti-immigrant hysteria aren't blowing quite hard enough in the Republican Party.

Here is Tom's own top presser:

U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO) today sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking her to clarify whether the U.S. has a legal obligation to extradite bounty hunters like Duane “Dog” Chapman to Mexico based on an agreement that could just amount to “a wink and a nod” between governments.

That probably sums up Tom's base: Dog Chapman. Tancredo is looking to become 2008's Alan Keyes (though Keyes is probably smarter).

Do we want to start on the Tom and the immigration issue first thing this morning? No. I didn't think so. Its there; dude is a nutjob. I'll bet Michael Savage is about to endorse him.

What the polls are showing

The latest CBS poll shows strong support for the democratic proposal to set a timetable for US involvement in Iraq.

More than half of Americans support the U.S. House provision setting a timetable that calls for most U.S. troops to be out of Iraq by September, 2008. According to a new CBS News poll, 59% of those surveyed favored the provision while 37% are opposed.

On a related note, see Glenn Greenwald's latest column on this topic.

Fox News' latest poll has Dubya with a 61% disapproval. That's the highest disapproval rating for Dubya. Ever. Surprisingly, the Fox headline was about dems being confident of taking the White House in 2008. Go figure.

Survey USA has a cool interactive feature up on their home page that allows you to look at head-to-head general election matchups of all the major presidential candidates.

As always, Pollster.com is the single best web site for polling-related matters. I also recommend Professor Pollkatz; his graphic of Dubya's approval represented as a toilet flush is both hilarious and telling.

John McCain strolls down Baghad Way!

Johnnie Mac does the stroll just like he promised. However, I was a bit confused because he had body armor on, plus had an armed escort. Oh wait, check that. Johnnie Mac had 100 soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters and two Apache gunships.

Awesome! I realize now there was a little disconnect between my idea of a stroll down, say some inner city, and Johnnie Mac's. For example, I used to enjoy enjoy walking around downtown Newark or the Ironbound District during a weekday in the early 80's. After moving to California, I always enjoyed strolling downtown Oakland on my lunch break, examining new project going up, or even urban decay. I'm an urban planner and am interested in urban design, so this stuff appeals to me.

So, imagine my excitement when Johnnie Mac seemed to take up a similar interest! Now, I'm not complaining about the good senator. I would take a stroll of an inner city with body armor, troops and helicopters any time any day. Hell, I'd do the stroll a 4 A.M. Saturday night.

But, Johnnie Mac, please put down the kool-aid. If Iraq is so damned safe, take a walk by yourself - or with just one or two secret servicemen. Then I'll have a lot more respect for your pronouncements of safety.

Henry Kissinger goes wobbly - says Iraq War is unwinnable

Henry, Henry, Henry:

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who helped engineer the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, said Sunday the problems in Iraq are more complex than that conflict, and military victory is no longer possible.

He also said he sympathizes with the troubles facing President Bush.

“A ‘military victory’ in the sense of total control over the whole territory, imposed on the entire population, is not possible,” Kissinger told The Associated Press in Tokyo, where he received an honorary degree from Waseda University.

Here's Henry in 2002, arguing that our allies needed to get on the War Train:

[A]ction against Iraq is not an obstacle to the war on terrorism but a precondition for it.

Nice, Henry. Glad your sage advice back in 2002 worked out so damned well. Please go die, already. The world will be a better place then.

House commitee votes to impeach Bush

Wow! The House Judiciary Committee just voted yesterday to impeach Dubya over FBI abuses. Why the hell isn't this all over Fox and CNN?????

Excerpts here:

House Judiciary Passes Article of Impeachment Against President Bush


WASHINGTON – The first article of impeachment against President George W. Bush was passed by the House Judiciary Committee in an emergency special session late Saturday. The article appears to have been prompted by new evidence that the FBI had abused its power under the direction of the president, who had blocked further investigations into the matter. Each of the thirty nine members of the committee seemingly voted along party lines on the measure, which passed by a vote of 22-17.

Happy Sunday, indeed!