Bush's New (Old/Never Had One) Iraq Strategy

Think Progress rips it apart piece by piece. For those of you who do not have the time or the interest to read the entire thing, Bush's latest speech is nothing more than a recycled string of consonants and vowels from his previous Iraq speeches. He has neither a plan nor a clue about what is actually happening in that hellhole.

Of course he continues to falsely characterize our troops and use their sacrifices to further his own cause, and he has the gall to do it while hiding behind our soldiers. It is nothing short of appaling and pathetic, and nothing more or less than I have come to expect from Bush.

Despite the fact that Democrats are not in control of any branch of government and cannot make any strategy or policy, at least Jack Murtha has a sound and reasonable plan. You want the Democrats to take care of you, as you know they will have to once things get so unbelievably bad? Fine. We will do that too, even though it is not our job right now. It blows my mind how right wingers and the media try to lay the blame for any of these tragedies at the feet of the Democratic party.

The World's Stupidest Pundit

It's Richard Cohen. Surprised?

Richard Cohen needs to find a vat of boiling oil in which he can take a nice, long dip.

Former senator John Edwards did that Nov. 13 in a Post op-ed article, and Sen. Joseph Biden uttered the "M" word Sunday on "Meet the Press." "[The vote for the war] was a mistake," said Biden. "It was a mistake," wrote Edwards. Yes and yes, says Cohen. But it is also a mistake to call it a mistake.

Why? Well clearly because

it is a mistake, if that's even the right word, to lack the courage of your convictions, to get swept up in the zeitgeist and dig in your heels even harder-- not as a consequence of hardening conviction but of accumulating doubt.

So admitting that the war was a mistake is equivalent to or worse than warmongering on false pretenses and slaughtering thousands of innocent people. So although

Rumsfeld raised a truly horrible specter: "Imagine a Sept. 11th with weapons of mass destruction" that would kill "tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children." Imagine a defense secretary who thought he was propaganda minister.

He's not the real villain here.

Well, those explanations are still lacking. But so, too, are those from Democrats who say they made a "mistake" in supporting the war.

This is no different from what Bush is trying to do: The intelligence was bad, not his wretched judgment.

As we clearly learned from this week's lesson, John Edwards = Dick Cheney. To top it all off, Cohen tries to absolve himself from any responsibility by asserting that

I wrote that the Bush administration would pay dearly if it was going to wage war for specious reasons. "War plans are being drawn up in the Pentagon," Iwrote. "But explanations are lacking at the White House."

If Cohen wanted the administration to pay for its crimes he would not have written that drivel about Fitzgerald doing better work for the country back home, as opposed to getting to the bottom of the pit of lies that started this war. Instead, he is more content to dodge the role he played and blame those who at least had the courage to find their convictions and admit they were wrong. Sounds like a propaganda minister to me.

Want Him to Knock You Up with His Thing?

Better wait for the bling. Bling baby, like the whore fundamentalist Christians know you are, because you're a woman.

I guess I need to start drinking heavily in order to see why abstinence is the moral high ground, because I am sober and not getting it at all.

The Holiday Season

You know things are looking up this holiday season when Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) admits to taking bribes, Ney is under prosecutorial investigation, DeLay's trial hasn't been throw out, Fitzgerald's investigation is ongoing, and Bush isn't talking to Cheney.

Happy Holidays!

Horse's Ass Consulting Kompany

HACK is now open for business.

Why Can't the NYT Get its Shit Together?

Do these reporters even bother to investigate or check anything do they write, or are they content to call themselves 'reporters' when all they do is pull words out of thin air? In regard to state budget surpluses, John Broder writes:

The windfall is a result of both a general upturn in the economy and conservative budgeting by state officials in recent years, and it is leading to the restoration of school funding, investments in long-neglected roads and bridges, debt reduction, and the return of money borrowed from cities and counties.

A general upturn in the economy? That's not pulling words out of thin air, that's pulling them out of your head, which is stuck up your ass. First, Broder doesn't cite any evidence for this general upturn in the economy. Second, it just ain't so.

When will reporters realize, or at least admit to being aware of the fact, that what they write shapes opinions. When you report something as fact that is not so, you are misling people into believing what is not true. If this is the kind of reporting that goes on at the ivory tower of journalism then reporters at the NYT need to take responsibility for what they write.

Broder, however, can wait his turn while we start with Judy.

Break out the Bubbly

We gonna get us some 'Publicans in jail!

A onetime congressional staffer who became a top partner to lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to bribe a congressman and other public officials and agreed to pay back more than $19 million he fraudulently charged Indian tribal clients.

The plea agreement between prosecutors and Michael Scanlon, a former press secretary to then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), provided fresh detail about the alleged bribes. The document also indicated the nature of testimony Scanlon is prepared to offer against a congressman it calls "Representative #1" -- who has been identified by attorneys in the case as Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio).

Smells like a culture of corruption to me.

Link.

Discrediting the War, and More

First Italy, now Germany.

Five senior officials from Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, said in interviews with The Times that they warned U.S. intelligence authorities that the source, an Iraqi defector code-named Curveball, never claimed to produce germ weapons and never saw anyone else do so.

But of course, how does a real newspaper with high standards of journalistic integrity - the same that brought us Judith Miller - report on the issue?

For years now, critics have complained that the Bush administration is equally cocksure, pursuing its political and ideological goals even when they are in conflict with data collected by agencies, analysis provided by professionals and procedures set by law.

Last week, this issue seemed to gain intensity as reports of the politicization of the government made the news almost every day. The pileup underscored what seems to be a consensus in political and academic circles - not only among Democrats but also among Republicans who want Mr. Bush to take a strong hand in shaping policy - that this administration seems more willing than its recent predecessors to bypass the bureaucracy to put its mark on government.

Here was the other problem with the misinformation that led up to the war. The press simply repeated Republican talking points as if they were true; it continues to do so now. Take that first sentence for example. It is not like this is an issue that exists in a political vacuum with nothing else. It is true. It has been proven and reported to be true countless times, most recently in the LA Times article quoted above. If the press is doing nothing more than passing along everything that everyone says, and not separating truth from lies and fact from fiction in its reports, then it is not properly doing its job. The press must stop reporting as if the above is nothing more than an opinion, because IT IS FACT. There are not two equal sides to this issue. One should be raised up, the other, vilified.

Just Say No

Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA), liberal hawk, has called for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. What do Republicans do when a decorated former Marine calls for withdrawal, something at odds with their current policy? Swift Boat them of course. Question their patriotism like this:

Congressman Murtha is a respected veteran and politician who has a record of supporting a strong America. So it is baffling that he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party. The eve of an historic democratic election in Iraq is not the time to surrender to the terrorists. After seeing his statement, we remain baffled -- nowhere does he explain how retreating from Iraq makes America safer.

Thanks, Scotty, I can sleep safely now becaue I know you care. What's the next step after swiftboating? Play politics and force a vote on immediate withdrawal than has no resemblance to Murtha's proposed amendment. I agree with John Aravosis, the best solution is to

The Dems should try to offer a resolution, and have the Repubs block it, proclaiming the sense of the Congress that President Bush is doing a great job - a heck of a job, one might say - executing the war in Iraq. If the Republicans kill the resolution, they look like they're afraid to endorse Bush, and if they vote for the resolution, they'll look like idiots calling this a great job when the majority of the public doesn't agree.

I'm also happy to hear that Pelosi is urging her caucus to vote against it. No Dem should be afraid of his own shadow, instead, he should be ready to kick the crap out of a chickenhawk Republican.

Here's the thing about the Republican amendment: it's bullshit and really offensive bullshit at that. It is neither a coherent attempt at any policy, nor an opinion on somebody else's policy. It is solely an attempt to riducule Democrats. The Democrats actually give a damn about the 2070+ dead soldiers in Iraq as well as the soldiers who are still fighting there. The Republicans do not care at all. Not about America, not about Iraq, only about political spite and themselves. This sends a clear message that we are being governed by people who neither know how, nor care to govern. It's disgusting.

Blogs are Press Too!

I think we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief that blogs will receive the same protections and exemptions as any other media outlet. From the report,

According to the House report on the 1974 amendments to the Act, the press exception made plain Congress's intent that the Act would not "limit or burden in any way the first amendment freedoms of the press . . ." and would assure "the unfettered right of the newspapers, TV networks, and other media to cover and comment on political campaigns." . . .

Many thanks to all the people who worked to petition Congress and testified before the FEC, as well as the commissioners for ruling in everyone's best interests.

GOP Out Cold

You never would have seen this if DeLay was still majority leader:

Legislation to fund many of the nation's health, education and social programs went down to a startling defeat in the House Thursday, led by Democrats who said cuts in the bill hurt some of America's neediest people.

The 224-209 vote against the $142.5 billion spending bill disrupted plans by Republican leaders to finish up work on this year's spending bills and cast doubt on whether they would have the votes to pass a major budget-cutting bill also on the day's agenda.

Among the more important proposed cuts were medicare and education, exactly what you would expect out of Republicans who would rather subsidize the oil industry. Today is a good day.

Link.

PS - Trying to get used to night blogging because lately I haven't had the chance to blog during the day.

I Didn't Do It!

Pat Roberts (R-KS), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was duped as well, and now thinks

a lot of us would really stop and think a moment before we would ever vote for
war or to go and take military action

Except that's the worst mea culpa I've ever seen. In reality, two members of Congress were allowed to see all of the same intelligence as the Bush administration, and Roberts, as head of the Intelligence Committee, was one of them.

If you pay close attention to the quote it isn't even an apology or an "I can do better." It's more of an "It'll be a lot harder to go to war now than it was before." Damn those pesky Democrats! Drat, drat and double drat!

link.

Press the Meat

Dean and Mehlman on today, I'll post a link if C&L puts the clips up.

Mehlman's full of his usual - in response to a question about the justification for the war in Iraq when we now know the intelligence was false, his response was 9/11 and we need to be on the offensive. Um... yeah.

Dean did a lot better as usual, his main talking point was honesty, and at least he had the courage to denounce wrong doing in both parties.

Pumpkin head wasn't too bad today.

Update: Brad Blog has the video.

Update: My favorite part was when Mehlman said Katrina demonstrated the failure of the welfare state. Welfare state? WTF is this guy, a McCarthy throwback from the 40s?

Lieberman Hearts Torture

Just like the Republican bastard he is.

"A foreign national who is captured and determined to be an enemy combatant in the world war on terrorism has no more right to a habeas corpus appeal to our courts than did a captured soldier of the Axis powers during World War II," Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, said in a statement.

The problem lies around the definition of enemy combatant. That's something this administration is doling out like a pedophile with a bag of candy. If the Democratic party wants to move forward, it needs to purge itself of people who have reactionary values and who will sell out America for their own advancement.

Time to go, Joe.

Link.

Fuckwit

Bush:

sharply criticized Democrats who have accused him of misleading the nation about the threat from Iraq's weapons programs, calling their criticism "deeply irresponsible" and suggesting that they are undermining the war effort.

Wanna know what really undermines the war effort? Lying to the world. Not properly equipping your soldiers. Not having a plan of action. Not having a sense of reality. And most of all, melting the skin off of children with white phosphorus. That's what undermines a war effort, you stupid fuck.

The New War on Terror

Is now the war to melt skin off of children.

I'm not making this up. Be prepared to be sick and not sleep well tonight.

I shouldn't have to say what I think of the people who brought us this war and conducted it in this matter. Even if I did, it wouldn't do them justice. I don't know what would.

Election Day

A good day for governors, a bad day for redistricting.

To all the Democrats who argued that the CA redistricting measure was bad because Democrats would lose a few seats in the house, please pay careful attention to the next instruction: get your heads out of Joe Lieberman's ass.

The entire point of redistricting is to put the country above partisanship - the same thing we are always attacking the GOP for - not to take a short term gain to fulfill political opportunism. It's an easy situation in which we can take the moral high ground and actually stand for something - an opportunity that we should be making good use of - so why look a gift horse in the mouth?

Furthermore, how many of you are for redistricting in OH but not in CA? That's grade A hypocrisy, which is a very bad thing. The end goal is to work to better the country, not the Democratic party. If the two are aligned then we're doing things correctly, i they're not then we're in serious trouble.

Scalito

Last week in my post on why Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination, I laid out two possible causes: the lack of moderate Republican support and the lack of wingnut Republican support. I said that the character of the new nominee would reflect which one of the above two had greater weight.

Bush nominated Scalito, a Scalia clone. The fundies are fine with Scalito, and from his record it seems that he is a-ok with them. This lends more support to the wingnut theory. However, the more I think about it the more I cannot help but wonder if Scalito was really nominated to appease the crazies. From what we know about Bush he does not give a damn about anything or anyone but himself. I do not think the Scalito nomination represents an utter capitulation to the crazy right; it is merely the latest in a long line of Bush crony nominations and appointments.

Bush nominated Scalito because he feels the most comfortable with Scalito and that Scalito will represent Bush's views on the SC. That is it, nothing more. If Bush's views happen to be more in line with the fundies than the moderates, then he will nominate someone is more in line with the fundies. But it is important to note that the alignment with the fundies is second-hand. Scalito is first and foremost aligned with Bush.

In light of this, Bush is serving nobody but himself. America and even the GOP take second place to his own ego. He loves to label anyone who disagrees with him as a judicial activist. Had he read any polls lately he would realize that he is the one out of touch with mainstream judicial philosophy. Of course that would require him to give a damn. About reading. The SC judge most likely to overturn precedent? Bush's favorite, Clarence Thomas. How does that sit with you for judicial activism?

No matter what the reasons for this appointment, Scalito must be opposed with full force. Bush can whine like the little baby he is, but it is 80 years too late for Scalito to be considered in the mainstream.

Iraq Intelligence Fabricated

It's incredible how much better the NYT's reporting has got since Miller was removed from the beat:

A top member of Al Qaeda in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document.

Isn't Monday morning quarterbacking nice when you don't feel the consequences?

Frist is Owned

Going to be short and sweet, but check out Reid on the front page of the WaPo.

"I will crush the GOP with my bare hands."

The Jesus/halo thing is a nice touch too.