Can someone please find out what it means to Bush?
President Bush will not attend weekend ceremonies including a Capitol Rotunda service, but he will return to Washington from his Texas ranch on Monday, pay respects to Ford while his remains lie in state at the Capitol, and speak Tuesday at services for Ford at the National Cathedral.
War is over if Bush wants it.
In other news, take a moment for the Hardest Working Man in Show Business.
Wow, this is a pretty somber xmas day post.
Peace and goodwill on earth for everyone. If we actually thought like that, maybe we could make a difference :)
Magical thinking has long pervaded this entire enterprise, and the pundits who
supported this whole thing long ago decided that they could evade responsibility
for their role in this by continuing to come up new Pony Plans. They can't come
to grips with the fact that this whole enterprise is doomed - and, in fact, has
long been doomed - and they can't come to grips with the fact that no matter
what they say George Bush is the decider.
Out to destroy his opponents in a not-so-honest way. Some tidbits from his latest bill:
– Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to report illegal
images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000.”
– Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports,
but under McCain’s legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face “even
stiffer penalties” than ISPs.
— Social networking sites will be forced to take “effective measures” — such as deleting user profiles — to remove any website that is “associated” with a sex offender. Sites may include not only Facebook and MySpace, but also Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists, and blogs like DailyKos, which allows users to sign up for personal diaries.
As right as progressives have been on this war from the get go, we were wrong not to consider the realpolitik implications of what would happen. Not that we could have influenced anything, but it would have been an extra canary in the coal mine.
Josh Marshall has the full rundown, but the long and short of it is that the neocons were totally up for starting a region-wide civil war so they could get their hands on some black gold and set up some pro-U.S. states. Not only are these people psychotic, but they have also been wrong about everything, all the time.
The way I see things playing out is that if this civil war spreads beyond Iraqi borders we will have jumpstarted a conflict that will rage throughout the entire region. Shi'a states will go to war with Sunni states. It will not matter whose side we take, for no matter how much they might hate each other they surely hate the U.S. more than anyone else. No matter who wins a majority of the Arab world will bear nothing but enmity toward the U.S.
All so George W. Bush can gamble at greatness. No matter how badly history proves him to be a failure some crackpot will come along and attribute everything good that happens from here on out to Bush, much like Republicans like to attribute the economic growth in the 90s to Reagan and stability in Chile to Pinochet.
It is what it is, but it did not and does not necessarily have to be that way.
Like it or not, Mr. Pinochet had something to do with this success. To the
dismay of every economic minister in Latin America, he introduced the
free-market policies that produced the Chilean economic miracle -- and that not
even Allende's socialist successors have dared reverse. He also accepted a
transition to democracy, stepping down peacefully in 1990 after losing a
referendum.
Ezra Klein.
Why do we pay attention to people who are wrong about everything all the time?
What Lakoff says (yes, he has Digby status).
I think the only argument that can be made against Lakoff is that when you brand Bush and the Republican party as incompetent you are attacking a relatively small group of people, but when you label it a failure of conservatism you run the risk of getting under the skin of ordinary people who self-identify as conservative and might perceive it as an attack upon themselves. However, we are at a point where there is mass discontent with the poster boy for conservatism and now is the right time to push this meme and get people to reconsider their beliefs. As Lakoff repeatedly points out throughout his essay, progressivism is a very attractive alternative.
Incidentally, Democrats will find it very hard to attract people if they do not claim the mantle of progressivism and keep on aiding and abetting conservatism.
Oh right, we already marginalized one of those assholes. Heh.
Althouse has uncovered a nefarious plot.
As always, waiting for Altmouse to set the record straight.
h/t Atrios.
For those of you who have not yet seen The Power of Nightmares, a documentary on the origins of radical Islam and Neoconservatives, you can download it at archive.org.
After reading Atrios' comments about an old prison in Providence, RI
Anyway, in the diary were observations about the mental health of the prisoners.
The prisoners lived in solitary confinement, in small rooms lacking natural
light. The diarist expressed genuine surprise that it didn't take very long
(6-12 months) for prisoners - many of whom were in for minor offenses - to start
displaying signs of profound mental illness.
Oh Pam, the love of your life is going to have so much more time on his hands to fight islamofascism with you.
Unable to win Senate confirmation, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton will step down
when his temporary appointment expires within weeks, the White House said
Monday.
