The Media's Mancrush David Petraeus Loves Progress

This kind:

More than 900 people have been killed in clashes between militiamen and security forces in Baghdad's Sadr City that broke out last month, a senior Iraqi official told reporters on Wednesday.

"There were 925 martyrs in Sadr City and 2,605 others have been wounded," in the firefights that began on March 25 and are still continuing, said Tehseen Sheikhly, a spokesman for the government's Baghdad security plan.

Thank you all for continuing to enable this.

The Wright Stuff

Can we make it stop now? Please?

I know this will only hurt Obama, so can we please get back to policy and things that matter? We're electing Obama, not wright.

Great, now I have a 80s song running through my head. Quick, to the glorious legends of funk!

Complainer in Chief

He's at it again:

U.S. President George W. Bush said on Tuesday the U.S. economy was facing a "tough time" because of rising food and energy prices and a weak housing market, and faulted Congress for inaction.

"Many Americans are understandably anxious about issues affecting their pocketbook, from gas and food prices to mortgage and tuition bills," Bush told a press conference.

"They're looking to their elected leaders in Congress for action. Unfortunately, on many of these issues, all they're getting is delay," he added.

I had 6 years of a Republican presidency and Congress and all I got is this crappy economy? Never mind their appalling lack of leadership that got us into this mess in the first place. Never mind the White House's attempts to stop the Frank-Dodd bill or the Treasury's bailout of Bear Stearns. Never mind that he has done nothing to help fix our economy. Just blame everyone else.

Supporting Human Rights

Eat it, ivory tower, liberal hawks. Just because the invasion of Iraq had some trappings of your pony plan, you never should have deluded yourself for one second into thinking that it would become reality, which turned out like this:

He also said that his superiors saw no problem with using confessions obtained through torture, including waterboarding. Everything is "fair game," he says he was told, "let the judge sort it out."

End the war now.

Pick the Democrat

Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized Barack Obama on Monday for opposing proposals to suspend federal gas taxes this summer, a plan she and Republican John McCain have endorsed. Obama didn't take the bait. He ignored Clinton and focused on McCain.

"My opponent, Senator Obama, opposes giving consumers a break," Clinton said at a firehouse. "I understand the American people need some relief," she added, implying that Obama doesn't get it.

That was easy.

Update: I make a point.

War?

Oh yeah, that war:

Fierce clashes between Shiite militiamen and US and Iraqi forces in east Baghdad killed at least 38 people, the American military said on Monday, amid new political efforts to end the bloodletting.

Sunday's heaviest fighting in weeks came on a day when militiamen blasted Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone with rockets and mortars, taking advantage of a blinding dust storm that grounded US attack helicopters.

Sounds like freedom is on the march.

Obama to Take on Fox

Yes.

McCain Gets Another Free Ride from the Press

Katrina-style:

Senator John McCain took direct aim at the Bush administration on Thursday as he stood in the lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, the area hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and declared that “never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in the terrible and disgraceful way that it was handled.’’

Mr. McCain, who was on the fourth day of a tour of America’s “forgotten places” to try to prove that he is a kinder, gentler Republican, ticked off a long list of mistakes: “There was unqualified people in charge, there was a total misreading of the dimensions of the disaster, there was a failure of communications.’’

Lest we forget exactly what McCain was doing when Katrina hit.

Gonna be a long election.

Where's the Outrage?

Imagine if this had been any other country:

An 84-year-old former Army engineer in New Jersey was charged on Tuesday with leaking dozens of secret documents about nuclear arms, missiles and fighter jets to the Israeli government during the early 1980s, federal prosecutors said.

The engineer, Ben-Ami Kadish of Monroe Township, could face life in prison or possibly the death penalty if convicted on the most serious charge, prosecutors said.

I'm sure the same people who regularly call for us to nuke Iran are busy getting their act together.

Clintonball

Hunter has a rant.

After PA, Clinton now needs 71% of all remaining pledged delegates. Good luck.

And, despite the spin coming out of the campaign about a win, she's back exactly where she started.

The score is oogy to boogy.

Corruption, McCain Style

Straight talkin':

Mr. Diamond, for his part, said Mr. McCain had only done his job. “I think that is what Congress people are supposed to do for constituents,” he said. “When you have a big, significant businessman like myself, why wouldn’t you want to help move things along? What else would they do? They waste so much time with legislation.”

PA Primary Today

My prediction - Clinton +7.

Yes we can!

Selling the War

Back from vacation.

Here's an article in today's NYT about how the Pentagon pushed coordinated talking points (otherwise known as propaganda) through retired generals in order to sell the Iraq war. This administration is full of crooks, thieves and liars through and through.

Bush Pays Taxes?

Something here seems funny:

President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush reported taxable income of $719,274 for 2007 and paid $221,635 in federal income tax, the White House said on Friday. The president's income included his salary as president and income from trusts in which his assets are held. The first lady received a $150,000 advance for a children's book she co-authored with daughter, Jenna, the White House said

Chris Matthews

The New York Times Magazine publishes a story.

Petraeus Punts

Can I be the first to call this a Petraeus Unit (P.U.)?

In his opening remarks, Gen. David Petraeus, the Iraq war commander, told the Senate panel there has been "significant but uneven security progress" in Iraq and the situation remains fragile.

The general recommended a 45-day "period of consolidation and evaluation" in July before deciding when to resume troop reductions and said current troop reductions will continue through July.

Wasn't this supposed to be the evaluation? Oh, it doesn't matter. It's only a few dozen lives and billion dollars.

How long before John McCain starts recommending P.U.s?

The Iraq War: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying.

I Didn't Do It!

Uncle Alan says he's innocent:

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has lashed out again at his critics, saying he was being blamed unfairly for the credit crisis and that he had no regrets about decisions he took while at the helm.

In an interview in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, Greenspan, who left the Fed in early 2006, says critics are ignoring evidence in his favor and failing to give credit to the thinking behind the Fed's decision to lower rates when he was in charge.

No one could have predicted that encouraging home ownership in such a reckless manner and keeping the interest rate below the inflation rate for so long could have had such an effect. Except they did, and Greenspan was wrong. It's his Randian problem and he'll have to shoulder the blame for it.

Mark Penn Is Gone

Let the healing begin.

Beyond the Pale

Friends of BushCheney:

That dawn, naked, covered in blood and feces, bleeding from her anus, she found a US soldier she did not know lying naked in the bed next to her: his gun lay on the floor beside the bed, she could not rouse him and all she could remember of the night before was screaming and screaming as the soldier anally penetrated her while a colleague who worked for defense contractor KBR held her hand--but instead of helping her, as she had hoped, he jammed his penis in her mouth.

Over the next few weeks Smith would be told to keep quiet about the incident by a KBR supervisor. The camp's military liaison officer also told her not to speak about what had happened, she says. And she would follow these instructions. "Because then, all of a sudden, if you've done exactly what you've been instructed not to do--tell somebody--then you're in danger," Smith says.

But contractors are good! And we can't prosecute them because they're not operating in the U.S.!

Read the article, this isn't an isolated incident.

I feel ill.

#1 Reason for Obama to Win the Primary

Mark Penn:

Hillary Clinton's chief campaign strategist met with Colombia's ambassador to the U.S. on Monday to discuss a bilateral free-trade agreement, a pact the presidential candidate opposes.

Attendance by the adviser, Mark Penn, was confirmed by two Colombian officials. He wasn't there in his campaign role, but in his separate job as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, an international communications and lobbying firm. The firm has a contract with the South American nation to promote congressional approval of the trade deal, among other things, according to filings with the Justice Department.

Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, Mr. Penn's campaign-consulting firm, received more than $10 million in payments from the Clinton campaign as of the end of February, according to federal election filings.

The fact that a Democratic candidate would hire a sleazebag like Penn - and has used him since 1996 - speaks volumes about candidate Clinton. The sooner she loses the sooner this loser will never see the light of day again.

Obama Raised $40 MM in March

Wow.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

So says the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged China to drop tariffs on environmental equipment, saying trade barriers are hindering efforts to clean up a nation that has 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities.

``There's something that doesn't seem economically sensible and morally right'' about charging a tariff on clean technology, Paulson said after his speech today on energy and the environment at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

The only things that are economically sensible and morally right in Paulson's book are those that make him and his buddies more money. See Bear Stearns, where American taxpayers will bear the brunt of their losses if they exceed $1 billion. Based on Tuesday's subprime loss league table, their losses will.

All About Yoo

Lovin' the torture.

Classy

Hillary Clinton.

Congestion Pricing Passes NYC Council

The controversial proposal to charge drivers in the busiest parts of Manhattan took a major step forward on Monday, with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Speaker Christine C. Quinn wrenching approval from the City Council by an unusually slim margin.

Councilwoman Melissa Mark Viverito, left, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer and Speaker Christine C. Quinn after the congestion pricing proposal was passed.

Under intense pressure from the mayor, Ms. Quinn and their allies that continued almost until the voting began, council members approved the plan to charge most drivers $8 to enter a zone below 60th Street by a vote of 30 to 20, with no abstentions and one absence.

Onto the state legislature.