Just something the "Decider" decided to do

A handwritten note (above) from VP Dick Cheney seems to indicate
the Plame outing came on orders from the president himself.

Has to happen today.

Call out to key press saying same thing about Scooter as Karl.

Not going to protect one staffer & sacrifice the guy this Pres. that was asked to stick his neck in the meat grinder because of the incompetence of others.

I never believed that the president was ignorant of the etiology of the Plame leak. Never. But the note above sure makes it look like the decision to out a covert operative and compromise intelligence assets was the idea of the president himself.

Which just confirms that he is truly every bit as vile and evil as I have been convinced he is since he was governor of Texas.

Compromise an undercover intelligence officer for petty, political reasons? Par for the course.

Just something the Decider decided to do.

Can we get our impeachment on yet?

Live Blogging the State of the Union

Nova is over. It's that time...I just told my husband I'm only watching because I'm afraid if I don't that Nancy Pelosi will just haul off and smack him up side the head with her ivory gavel, and I couldn't bear to miss that...

Jim Lehrer is talking to Mark shields and David Brooks. And the Supremes just filed in. Kinda-Sleazy led the cabinet, gladhanding on both sides.

Dear God - I know we've had issues with your existence, but Alberto Gonzalez is the cabinet member not in attendance, so please nix those prayers for a catastrophic event that I am sure you have been petitioned heavily for over the last few days...

David Brooks is saying he will gloss over Iraq, and try to focus on domestic issues. He feels Iraq has been addressed with his speech last week.

The cloakroom manager just announced the presence of his majesty, and he is gladhanding down photo-op aisle. Speech is supposed to run 40 minutes, and be "bipartisan" in nature. Good lord, Liddy Dole looks haggard and hideous...

He is at the podium, and the applause is dying down. Nancy just gaveled to order and is introducing him. The congress is clapping, and my husband is booing.

He said it's his honor to begin his speech with these words "madam Speaker" and the house went nuts. He ust sucked up to nancy, and she rose graciously to shake his hand...He acknowledged Senator Johnson and Representative Norwood...

Here we go...I just realized his tie is blue. He just congratulated the "Democrat" majority.

Okay, he's talking about spending money wisely and not passing problems off to future generations. He already lost me...

We must balance the federal budget...we can do so without raising taxes (not if he puts the war in the budget). He wants to eliminate the deficit in fie years...That requires a Democrat at that podium. Clinton handed him a surplus.

Now he is on earmarks - wasn't too concerned about that Prairie parkway earmark when Hastert was Speaker, and the Dems have already declared earmarks will no longer be secret.

I'll let Keith deal with his education comments over at WTWC...He wants NCLB reauthorized...

Here comes healthcare...He wants a tax deduction like the mortgage interest deduction. Sounds like a big wet kiss to the insurance industry to me.

Border patrol will increase, he says. And workplaces will be held accountable (this will require more than 3 prosecutions per year) . When he said comprehensive immigration reform nancy led the standing O.

Now on to oil, he wants clean coal (what a fallacy) energy and nukes, as well as wind and solar, and he wants ethanol production stepped up. (HYDROGEN ANYONE???) Goal: "reduce gasoline consumption by 20% over a decade. Double the capacity of the SPR...Hmmm...what's he thinking there? (A broadened war in the middle east that would disrupt supplies?)

Now on to the "war on terra" and how those terrorists want to kill us. So we have to take the fight to them. "Our success is measured by things that never happened." At least he didn't mention those hapless fools in Florida as a terror attack averted...Now he is declaring that Sunni and Shia aren't all that different, proving he just doesn't get it.

We will find our enemies and protect the American people? Really? Where's Osama?
Warner looks like he could just drag him off the podium and stomp him.

McCain looks like he nodded off...

Lots of people with dour looks, and many not clapping, not standing, not showing any support for his pet war. He's talking about his shiny new plan...deploying more troops into the fray (read: creating more casualties). He's talking about Sunni al Qa'eda setting up shop in Shia in Iraq - I addressed this in the ass-kicking I gave Liz Cheney...

Cheney stood to clap, Nancy is seated with her hands folded. Applause was tepid. He wants us to give his plan a chance to work and support "our troops in the field and those on their way." and "We'll show our enemies." Increase the sie of the Army and Marine Corps by 90K troops over 5 years. Volunteer civilian reserve corps (he wants to conscript people like me and Andrew 618 is how I read that).

Jeebus! Iran can have all the New-que-lar weapons they want. It's the nuCLEar weapons I'm worried about...Ditto NorK.

My husband just called him a "Fuckface." And a draft dodger.

Now some feel-good stories. "Baby Einstein" founder (kill that bitch!) John Walsh, some 7-foot-freak from the Congo...Whatever.

Okay, Wesley Autrey - Now that's a story that brings a tear to my eye...

Good for Sgt. Reaman who received a Silver Star for heroism in battle, but what about Leann Hester? First woman to receive a Silver Star since WWII. Just sayin...

Okay, that's that...On to the response from Senator Jim Webb.

People are Standing Up

Today in the Kansas City Star, the following three letters to the editor lead off. Powerful stuff.

How many more will die?

There is a wall in Washington, a long, black wall of marbled panels inscribed with more than 58,000 names of the long dead. Many of us who did not die have walked that wall, still burdened with loss and guilt. We remember the rain and mud, and the sweat and blood, that sucked at our boots until we thought we were in a quagmire that we might never return from.

Now a much smaller number of names – more than 3,000 so far — are unrecorded and unremembered in spite of their sacrifice and loss. But what if those names were etched each day upon their own panel as they fell? How long must we walk past as each name is etched into stone? How many days, weeks, years?

And now we are called to watch as more names are to be added. Those who return will remember their boots sinking into the sands of Iraq as the hot winds of hate swirl. And for what?

Surely the Iraqis say, “When the Americans leave, then we will sort all of this out.” Would we not say and do the same if our country was occupied?

Still, the chiseler etches our brothers’ and sisters’ names into eternity, one by one, until the war is done.

**********************************************

Bring our troops home

Congress has a duty to enforce the will of the American people. Legislators should withhold more funding for the war but provide funds to bring our military people home. It would be a travesty to afford this administration’s personally selected corporate gluttons further opportunities to pig out at their sumptuous Iraqi banquet financed by U.S. tax dollars.

Congress must not toady to the president’s strategies this time. It would be akin to the same self-serving fear that gave the president power to go to war. Our nation’s leaders should quit pretending our soldiers are occupying Iraq as peacekeepers. They’re targets.

Trying to mend Iraq, this country with a seething history of political and religious division, is as senseless as working a jigsaw puzzle in a tornado.

**********************************************

Forget about ‘winning’ war

Last Wednesday night, President Bush made another proposal on what to do in Iraq. Generally speaking, the American public probably didn’t buy it. May I make a suggestion that I don’t believe has ever been tried and could be successful?

In simple terms, it is a strategy of intelligently managing the always inevitable societal disorder. As an example, isn’t that what a good police department does? The police department doesn’t ever “win” a war against criminal activity because it can’t. It just manages the disorder.

So in Iraq (and everywhere) the United States should forget “winning” any war against insurgents or terrorists. We should analyze the disorder and figure out intelligent methods of combating it militarily and politically. Ultimately, the disorder will subside, Iraqi society can rule again, and we can safely say goodbye.

And later in the week, they are running my letter about the new oil law that was written for western oil interests. We are pissed. And a pissed off electorate is one of the few things that truly has the power to change the world.

So change the fucking world already. These words used to be a bumper sticker, but no longer. Now they are a rallying cry...

If not us, who?

If not now, when?

It's Time to Stand Up

Americans, that is, not Iraqis. We are well into "fitness to serve territory" and it is up to us - you and me and the rest of the country who feels like we do - to put an end to this insanity.

This president will never resign and we can not abide two more years. He is pathologically bent on a Revelations inspired vision of the world, bringing about Armageddon. His pathologies regarding the middle east dovetail nicely with the interests of his friends in big oil.

We have reached a point where it is undeniable. The campaign to remove this feckless leader from office starts NOW.

On January 27th, there will be a rally on the mall in Washington against this presidents plans to escalate our involvement in the Iraqi civil war. If there is any way possible that you can get to Washington, GO. If you can't get to Washington, attend a rally in your area. If you can't attend a rally, write a letter to the editor of your local paper. Write your Senator's and Representatives. Educate yourselves and talk to your neighbors and friends and co-workers. Don't just accept this.

America was not founded by those who meekly accepted their lot, and this American has no intention of meekly accepting her lot now.

My peers and I have changed the world before and I'm game to give it another go. We got a Nuclear Freeze and we ended Apartheid. We have had the playbook for years, and now we have the netroots, so what the hell is stopping us? Only our own inaction.

We had an election to set things right, and the president refuses to acknowledge it. We want change, we voted for change and he insists on giving us more of the same plus 20%. Bullshit. I won't abide it and neither should you. Our children are the ones who will pay the price for this folly. Those who serve will pay in blood and those who do not will pay the tab to China when it comes due.

The ramifications of this presidents actions are too far reaching and too universally against the interests of the American people and it is up to us to stop it.

It's time to stand up.

Paul Krugman: The Texas Strategy

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: January 15, 2007
The New York Times

Hundreds of news articles and opinion pieces have described President Bush’s decision to escalate the Iraq war as a “Hail Mary pass.”

But that’s the wrong metaphor.

Mr. Bush isn’t Roger Staubach, trying to pull out a win for the Dallas Cowboys. He’s Charles Keating, using other people’s money to keep Lincoln Savings going long after it should have been shut down — and squandering the life savings of thousands of investors, not to mention billions in taxpayer dollars, along the way.

The parallel is actually quite exact. During the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s, people like Mr. Keating kept failed banks going by faking financial success. Mr. Bush has kept a failed war going by faking military success.

The “surge” is just another stalling tactic, designed to buy more time.

Keep Reading

Bush on 60 Minutes

Great Gatsby's Ghost, that was a disturbing display. This man obviously has no grounding in reality at all. In spite of everything; the opinion of the Generals who have been in charge up to now, the American people, the Congress, those serving in uniform... he is moving forward. It is a fine line indeed that separates determined from pathological. I watched the interview (if you missed it, it's in the link) and was just stunned by the lack of appreciation for what he's done.

Asked if he thinks he owes the Iraqi people an apology for not doing a better job, Bush says, "Well I don’t, that we didn’t do a better job or they didn’t do a better job?"

"Well, that the United States did not do a better job in providing security after the invasion?" Pelley clarifies.

"Not at all. I think I am proud of the efforts we did. We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude. That’s the problem here in America. They wonder whether or not there is a gratitude level that’s significant enough in Iraq," Bush replies.

Yes, those ungrateful Iraqis, don't appreciate all he's done for them. Sucking the civil out of the cradle of civilization was a direct result of the American invasion, but the Iraqi's should be grateful.

Are we into fitness to serve territory yet, and if not, what the hell else will it take? Willful disregard for the will of the American people is a fitness to serve issue.

He chooses to forge on, ignoring the congress, the citizenry, the Generals on the ground, the troops in uniform. He chooses to ignore his Daddy's men who were sent to bail him out. He ignores all but a few dead enders at the American Enterprise Institute who lust for wars they are not obliged to fight. Then he whines that people like me were picking his plan apart before he had even announced it.

Well, yeah. Of course I did. The day the AEI posted their latest stay-the-course, more-of-the-same-plus-20% scheme, I steeled myself and downloaded it and gave it a read. That report told me what the president would say, and that gave me a head start. (Me and everyone else on both sides of the issue with half a functioning cortex and Acrobat Reader.)

It's time for us - you and me - to stand up and make this madness stop. We had an election, and the results were a mandate on the war. A mandate the president has chosen to ignore in favor of getting a bunch more Americans and Iraqi's killed as he stays the course toward hell, with his vanity war.

On Tuesday, January 27th there will be a rally in Washington against the war and the escalation. If you can attend the rally on the mall, do so. If you can't attend the rally in Washington, find a local one. If you can't attend a rally, make it a point to, on that day, send emails to your congressional representative and your senators and express your support for withdrawing from Iraq.

Heckuva Job, George

For Those Keeping Score at Home...

We have had no shortage of new strategies for Iraq. The casting about wildly has been going on for quite some time.

Who remembers Operation Together Forward, rolled out on 09 June 2006? Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced that in an effort to quell violence in Baghdad they would employ checkpoints and a curfew that kept Iraqis indoors from 9:00 pm to 6:00 am...I repeat...In June...In Baghdad...with spotty electric at best.

The result was not decreased violence. The plan failed utterly and completely. By the end of July, it was abandoned.

On July 25, 2007 Bush and Maliki announced that 4000 troops would be repositioned to Baghdad from other areas of the country. This action does nothing to quell the violence in Baghdad, and violence flared in the areas where troops had been pulled out. This led to Senator McCain's famous Whack-a-Mole remark.

Operation Together Forward II was introduced the first week of August. Joint teams of Iraqi and American soldiers began clearing neighborhoods, house-to-house. Areas that had been cleared were to be handed over to Iraqi police.

This nag barely made the first turn. The Iraqis had committed to provide six battalions, but only produced two. Areas that were "cleared" of insurgents and handed over to the Iraqi police did not stay cleared or secure past sundown of the second day. By late October, the U.S. military command in Iraq formally affixed the stamp of failure.

And now he comes before us and tells us he has ordered a futile troop buildup.

This president has been absolutely wrong about absolutely everything up to this point. What, pray tell, exists in his record that would imply he has any prayer of ever having a clue? Let alone the wisdom to extract our country from this clusterfuck?

BIDEN OPPOSES TROOP BUILDUP

"Mr. President, this is your war." --Sen. Joseph Biden

Senator Joseph Biden, Democrat of Delaware, and incoming chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee has stated unequivocally that he opposes any escallation or troop buildups that would insert 20-30,000 additional troops into Baghdad.

This places him firmly at odds with fellow 2008 presidential hopeful, Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, who was one of the first to call for an escallation of troop numbers to try to quell the sectarian violence in Baghdad. The country would appear to be on Senator Biden's side, given that only 11% of Americans favor such a buildup.

"Absent some profound political announcement . . . I can't imagine there being an overwhelming, even significant support for the president's position," he told reporters during a telephone conference call Tuesday.

If the violence continues two years from now, "every one of those Republican senators — and there's 21 of them up for re- election — knows that that is likely to spell his or her doom," Biden said.

Senator Biden has already informed Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice that she appear before his committee to answer questions about the President's "new and improved" Iraq war plan as soon as it is announced next month. The Secretary has agreed.

I am glad to see Biden taking this stand, vowing to take on this fight, but then I am always glad to see Democrats show signs of spinal fortification.

What we had on November 7 was not just an election - it was an intervention. And like so many addicts, the president charmed his way out the door with words of contrition, and ten minutes later he was back on the streets, trying to score more and more powerful drugs.

"Choosing Victory"

I think it's behind curtain number three, Monty.

I realize Halloween was nearly two months ago, but the president's "way forward" is really some scary stuff. The kind of scary that makes you hear Mahler in the background. Stay the course...hmmm...let's call it Choosing Victory instead. (Like we chose this clusterfuck?)

Choosing Victory is the document that started this whole nonsense business of talking about a troop build-up. The report was compiled by Frederick Kagan, a wingnut of the first order who sees this as a Napoleonic struggle.

Of course, he assumes a lot. First, he assumes that the Shia militias will be so pleased with the additional American troops that they will cease fighting. Second, he assumes that the Sunni insurgents will be defeated by emboldened (embiggened?) Iraqi security forces and will radiate out from Baghdad like a pebble tossed into a pond. Third, he assumes that the additional troops to deploy are readilly available, when in reality assembling, training and equipping takes time.

All overtures to diplomacy and dialogue as recommended by the Iraq Study Group are dismissed out of hand as soft-headed and well, just silly. Kagan insists that there is still a military option in Iraq and that option has a name -- "victory." (How this will be achieved is not addressed). If I were a lawyer I would be screaming "Objection! Assertion not in evidence!"

"Victory is still an option in Iraq," it states. "America, a country of 300 million people with a GDP of $12 trillion, and more than 1 million soldiers and marines can regain control of Iraq, a state the size of California with a population of 25 million and a GDP under $100 billion."

This left me shaking my head with double-secret incredulity. First incredulous assertion: By that measure, we won in Viet nam. Hell, we didn't even have to go in...France won in Viet Nam. Second incredulous assertion: We have more ipods! Therefore we will win!

Seriously, where did they find these guys? Belleview?

It would be funny if nearly a hundred kids a month weren't dying in Iraq because of lies this president told.

And military strategy developed by people who last put on a uniform in cub-scouts is just fucking tragic.

"...this war we find ourselves in"

Did anyone else catch that? Did that fucking idiot really say that? The feckless fool who started this clusterfuck, in a speech last week actually said that. Talk about ducking ones responsibility!

Let's refresh, shall we? We didn't wake up one morning and find that while we slept, our forces had been magically transported to the desert of Iraq and enchanted by an evil Vizeer to make war. We are not losing a war in Iraq due to circumstances beyond our control; we are there because of a hard-on for Saddam that the "Decider" has been sporting since 1991. We are there because we have a frat-boy punk in the oval office who has never felt he measured up to his daddy; and had to start a war to prove to the entire world that he indeed couldn't measure up to his one-term-wonder daddy.

Just so no one forgets, it is absolutely not "this war we find ourselves in". It is, instead, this ill-advised pissing contest that was started by a fucking moron with small-man complex.

APOSTACY

Can you stand it? I mean, can you even stand it? That smarmy aWol little bitch sitting in the oval right now had the utter gall to compare himself to Harry S Truman yesterday.

Can you imagine that? I was stunned speechless, and lemme tell ya, that is no mean feat. But being from Missouri, specifically from Jackson County, home of Harry S Truman, I took this as a personal affront.

Bush began his talk by comparing himself to President Harry S Truman, who launched the Truman Doctrine to fight communism, got bogged down in the Korean War and left office unpopular.
snip
Durbin said he challenged Bush's analogy, reminding him that Truman had the NATO alliance behind him and negotiated with his enemies at the United Nations. Durbin said that's what the Iraq Study Group is recommending that Bush do now — work more with allies and negotiate with adversaries on Iraq.

Bush, Durbin said, "reacted very strongly. He got very animated in his response" and emphasized that he is "the commander in chief."

Tell me true - how close do you think he is to muttering to the portraits? For the love of all that is sacred (the Constitution, the Magna Carta, Habeas Corpus, Posse Comitatus, the Insurrection Acts) I beg the Democratic leadership to rethink their "no impeachment" declaration.

President Pelosi has a nice ring to it, I think.

Let's recap the week so far

Today is Thursday, which means that tomorrow is news-dump day, and the closer to 5:00 p.m. the better from the administrations position.

Let's recap the week thus far, shall we? It started with Darth Cheney being summoned to Riyahd by the Saudi royals. They are less than pleased with the war raging in Iraq. And the Wahabist Sunni Saudi's are less than pleased at the goings-on next door in Iraq and the instability that is being fomented in the region. Those 17 Saudi hijackers were not only angry at America, people. The Saudi's know that, but they are banking on the American public not being able to cypher.

Meantime, Dear Leader had a grand get-together cooked up with al-Maliki in Amman, but then Moqtada al-Sadr informed al-Maliki that if he went to the meeting with Bush, the Sadr faction would pull out of Parlaiment and collapse the government. Since they are the largest faction, hiolding 32 seats, they could do it easily.

This left George explaining how he hadn't been stood up for the prom. It wasn't a trilateral meeting afterall, it was a bilateral meeting with Bush and King Abdulluh of Jordan. Iraq was merely a topic discussed in brief.

Thirty thousand troops are being pulled from the violence of Anbar to Baghdad in an effort to quell the violence there and delay the inevitable Fall of Baghdad.

Oh - and Colin Powell - remember him at the U.N. selling this used Gremlin to the nation? He is saying George is wrong and Iraq is in a civil war.

You're doin' a heckuva job, Bushie...A heckuva job.

An open letter to George W. Bush

The following open letter to George W. Bush was posted on the Democrats-dot-org website yesterday. I held off, because I wanted to save it and post it On Pat's Birthday.

Mr. Bush, you failed to protect our country from the attacks of 9/11 despite prior warning from the CIA. That attack occurred 9 months after you took office, as opposed to the month Bill Clinton had in office at the time the World Trade Center Bombing occurred in 1993. You had plenty of time to prepare for an attack we all new would come eventually and you still failed. This happened despite the fact that you placed more pressure on extremist groups in the Middle East the moment you took office.

You were unable to prevent a far more serious attack than the World Trade Center Bombing and you failed to apprehend the mastermind responsible, so why should we believe that we are safer in Republican hands?

In March of 2003 you made the decision to enter Iraq because you were certain that Weapons of Mass Destruction would be found along with terrorist connections. Again you were wrong, and have admitted as much. As a result almost as many Americans as died in the attacks of 9/11 have died in Iraq.

Following the capture of Saddam Hussein you said that things would get better in Iraq, but they didn't. (I'm sensing a trend here Mr. Bush.) Instead the situation on the ground continues to be unstable and ordinary Iraqis continue to go without necessities such as electricity and plumbing, which is just one more reason why those able to have fled. Last month was a record month for U.S. casualities in Iraq and I'm tired of losing friends Mr. Bush.

I see nothing within these many blunders to suggest that we would be better off leaving the political structure as is. I see reason to change things though. For one, you might be forced to fire an incompetent individual such as Donald Rumsfeld and you might in turn hire a competent individual like Colin Powell, not that I think he'd be thrilled to work for you again.

You won't find success through loyalty Mr. Bush. It's clear that you believe you will, but your lack of success must be telling you otherwise by now. One way or another Mr. President of the United States of America, Mr. Commander in Chief, you will have to straighten out the mess, otherwise future Americans will simply have to assume that you were the problem.

Posted by Marine on November 5, 2006 at 08:00 PM

The Rules

The Publicans have a lot of nerve asking us for a "plan" and I am getting sick of being asked. Personally, my plan involves a Delorean, a Flux Capacitor and a few gigawatts of power. But I had nothing to do with the creation of this giant clusterfuck.

Bill Maher has some sage advice. First off, a new rule in two parts...A) You can't call yourself a "Think Tank" if all your ideas are stupid, and B) If you are someone from one of those "Think Tanks" that dreamed up the Iraq war and predicted we would be greeted as liberators, and that we wouldn't need a lot of troops, and that Iraqi oil would pay for the war, that the WMD's would be found, that the looting wasn't problematic, that the mission was accomplished, that the insurgency was in it's last throes; that things would get better after the people voted, after the government was formed, after we got Saddam, after we got his kids, after we got Zarqawi, and that the whole bloody mess wouldn't turn into a civil war...You have to STOP making predictions!!! You know, there is a name for people who are always wrong about everything all the time...husbands.

You know it's a shame what's happened to Think Tanks. They used to produce valuable apolitical analysis, but partisanship crept into many of them and the Bush administration doesn't just come up with something as stupid as 'if we leave now they'll follow us home. No, they have someone from a Think Tank say it first. It's a way to lend respectability, the same reason a titty-bar has food.

The Think Tanks that incubated the Iraq war have lofty names, like The Heritage Foundation, and The Project for a New American Century...Whatever. they've been wrong so often I'm surprised they're not my broker. Richard Perle thought we caould win Iraq with forty thousand troops. Paul Wolfowiths predicted that in 2003 the grateful people of Baghdad would name some fine square in their great city after President Bush, and he was right when he said they would be waiving American flags...they were on fire.

William Kristol poo-pooed the fears that Sunnis and Shi'ites would be at each others throats as the stuff of pop-psychology. Right. And having your head chopped off is just a quick way to drop eleven pounds. Kristol of course is revered by much of the right because he was Dan Quayle's Chief of Staff and he was known as "Quayle's brain." Which sounded impressive until I remembered Dan Quayle didn't have a brain. And now Mr. Kristol proposed immediate military action against Iran, predicting the Iranians will thank us for it. Hey, you know what Nostradamus, why don't you sit this one out. We'll get by using the Magic 8-Ball for a while because you guys have been so wrong about so much for so long people are actually turning to the Democrats.

So we can say that Iraq was a "noble experiment" if that helps you. Our intention was good; to penetrate iraq and bring it to a glorious, euphoric climax. But it's clear now that's just not going to happen. And yet we're still pounding away, causign the whole area to become painfully enflamed. And in that situation the kindest thing you can do is just pull out.

The election is [three] days away. I'm through dicking around with you. Here are the talking points:

1. When they say the Democrats will raise taxes, you say we have to because someone spent all the money in the world cutting Paris Hilton's taxes and not killing Osama bin Laden. In just six years the national debt has doubled. You can't keep spending money you don't take in. That's not even elementary economics, thats just called don't be Michael Jackson.

2. When they say the terrorists want the Democrats to win, you say "Are you insane? George Bush has been a terrorists wet dream." He inflames radical hatred against America and then cuts and runs on offerign to protect us from it. It's like a guy throwing shit on you and then offering to sell you relief from the flies.

3. When they say "cut and run" or "defeatocrat" you say "Bush lost the war. Period." All this nonsense about the violence is getting worse over there because they are trying to influence the election; No it's getting worse because you drew up the post-war plans on the back of a cocktail napkin at Applebees. And of course Democrats want to win, but that's impossible now that you've ethnically cleansed the place by making it unlivable. Just like you did with New Orleans.

4. When they say that actual combat veterans like John Kerry are denigrating the troops, You say "You are completely full of shit." Remember when Al Gore caught all that flack for sighing and moaning during that debate? yeah. Don't do that. Just say "You're full of shit." If I was a troop the support I would want back home would come in the form of people back home pressurign Washington to get me out of this pointless nightmare. That's how I would feel supported.

So when they say Democrats are obstructionists, you say "You're welcome." Sometimes good people have to intercede to prevent dire consequences. You wouldn't like to think of me as an obstructionist, but what if Roseanne had offered to sing? So I would be happy to frame this debate as a fight between the obstructionists and the enablers.

There is your "talking point." A vote for the Republicans is a vote to enable George Bush to keep ruling as an emperor. A retarded child emperor, but an emperor. So Democrats you've got [three] days to get out there and close. And it's not about slogans this time. Although when it comes to slogans, the only one I'm prepared to accept from the opposition is "The Republican Party. We're Sorry."

We have 52 hours Dems, from the time this posts until the polls open Tuesday. Get out the vote!

Let's parse terrorism

Terrorism is a tactic. It is a tool to inspire fear and manipulate behavior thereby.

So...Couldn't we make the case that those horrible Progress for America ads are psychological terrorism? What about the president who was a "Uniter not a Divider" - before he was the "Decider" - who says that a Democratic victory on Tuesday means the terrorists win?

How can anyone take seriously a president who openly proclaims a "Global War on Terror" when he embraces the tactics of those he so vehemently denounces?

Just wondering about that little bit of Orwellianism.

I am loath to even mention the Kerry debacle...

It really should be a non-issue, but it isn't. Still, I am not going to scream for the head of a decorated veteran for botching a joke that was clearly intended to be a swipe at the president and his top civilian military advisors. Instead, I think I will examine the record of this administration with regard to the troops and the war.

The Republicans are the party that ended full support of the Afghan War before that mission was completed. Now the Taliban is back and Afghanistan is a failed state.

The Republicans are the party that basically fabricated reasons for launching a war. The one we were fighting was just and justified. But they had to go into Iraq.

The Republicans are the party that rushed headlong into a war with such wild abandon that the troops went in without the appropriate vehicle or body armor.

The Republicans are the party of Rumsfeld, who threatened to fire the very next senior military official who brought up post-war planning. This is the short-sighted buffoon that the president just today claimed is doing a fine job and he wants him to remain in his job another two years.

The Republicans are the party that refused to send in enough troops to stablize the country in the post major conflict phase because Rumsfeld wanted to try out his theories regarding a "streamlined" force.

The Republicans are the party that has overextended the military and the National Guard, to the point that the various branches have had to resort to all sorts of measures that had never been used before. They have called up inactive reserves, instituted a back-door draft with stop-loss policies, and they have breached the promises made to those who serve. A date that a tour will end is a sacred thing. When this date means nothing, a sacred trust is violated.

The Republicans are the party that has lied, repeatedly and routinely, about the conditions in Iraq.

The Republicans are the party of the President that has already declared that we are there for as long as he is president and the next inhabitant of the oval will have to clean the mess up.

The Republicans are the party that has refused to do anything to increase the size of the armed forces because it would be politically unpopular.

The Republicans are the party that has refused to allow the coffins of the fallen to be photographed at Dover AFB as they make their final journey home.

The Republicans are the party that claims exclusive loyalty of the troops in uniform, yet the Army is short 3500 officers throughout the ranks, and the Army Reserves is short 11,000 Lieutenants and Captains. Prior to this administration, there were waiting lists for OCS in all of the branches. Now, no one is getting turned down who applies, and very few are washing out.

The Republicans are the party that has cut research and rehab funding for troops returning to civilian life after traumatic brain injuries suffered in combat.

The Republicans are the party that have increased Tri-Care deductibles and co-pays while reducing military benefits. (My husband is a retiree and we don't even bother. We have private insurance and use our Tri-Care as secondary.)

The Republicans are the party that have reduced retiree benefits on people like my husband who never flinched once and did his duty with honor for twenty-four years.

The Republicans are the party that never met a promise to Veterans they couldn't wait to break.

These are much more eggregious offenses than a botched joke, just for the record.

Where is the outrage about these things?

Bush Fesses Up!!!

The Decider had a sit-down with that paragon of journalistic virtue Rush Limbaugh (Gawd, I need a shower just hitting that succession of keystrokes) and he basically came clean about the reasons we are in Iraq and American kids are dying daily. Turns out it was all about oil, afterall. Who woulda thunk it?

Give me a second here, Rush, because I want to share something with you. I am deeply concerned about a country, the United States, leaving the Middle East. I am worried that rival forms of extremists will battle for power, obviously creating incredible damage if they do so; that they will topple modern governments, that they will be in a position to use oil as a tool to blackmail the West. People say, "What do you mean by that?" I say, "If they control oil resources, then they pull oil off the market in order to run the price up, and they will do so unless we abandon Israel, for example, or unless we abandon allies.

Of course, It also just highlights the fact that our president is a blooming idiot. Now, where to start? How about with the fact that this supposed oil-man apparently has no effing clue how the world oil markets work.

First of all, Iraq hasn't the production capability to threaten the world markets. We are getting by without Iraqi oil now, so what would change, really? If the Iraqi supply were to be cut off it would just inspire greater production from Venezuela, Nigeria, Canada, Mexico and the North Sea producers.

Nobody is going to control Iranian oil besides Iranians. If the Iranians can't see to that by their own devices, I am pretty sure that the Chinese would have their backs, because they have an even greater appetite for the sticky black stuff than Americans do.

Oil fuels the economic engine, world-wide, and that is a fact. But some of us do not feel that is sufficient cause to invade sovereign nations, occupy their land and construct hardened permanent bases. We certainly do not feel it is sufficient reason to bury 2800 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.

Instead, being the sober adults that we are, we would have much prefered the money that we have charged on that Chinese credit card to fight the war in Iraq to have been spent pursuing alternative and clean energy sources. That would have made much more sense, and I bet they could even have cajoled Halliburton into producing wind turbines and solar panels.

Every newspaper in the land should scream from the headlines tomorrow morning BUSH CONFESSES...IT WAS ALL ABOUT OIL AFTER ALL. But they won't. Where is this "liberal media"I keep hearing about?

Whadya mean you never said we would "stay the course"?

Today, George W. Bush spoke with George Stephanopolous. The following is excerpted from that conversation.

STEPHANOPOULOS: James Baker says that he’s looking for something between “cut and run” and “stay the course.”

BUSH: Well, hey, listen, we’ve never been “stay the course,” George. We have been — we will complete the mission, we will do our job, and help achieve the goal, but we’re constantly adjusting to tactics. Constantly.

Time out on the field!!!

George W. Bush: 15 Dec 2003; We will stay the course until the job is done, Steve. And the temptation is to try to get the President or somebody to put a timetable on the definition of getting the job done. We’re just going to stay the course.

George W. Bush: 17 Mar 2004; We will stay the course.

George W. Bush: 05 Apr 2004; And so we’ve got tough action in Iraq. But we will stay the course.

George W. Bush: 13 Apr 2004; And my message today to those in Iraq is: We’ll stay the course.

George W. Bush: 16 Apr 2004; And that’s why we’re going to stay the course in Iraq. And that’s why when we say something in Iraq, we’re going to do it.

George W. Bush: 04 Aug 2005; We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq.

George W. Bush: 30 Aug 2006; We will stay the course.

So...Sorry, Sir, but I gotta say you are lyin' about this one. Care to try again?