Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Screwing up a two car parade
The Lost Year in Iraq
After watching this report, I would guess that our entry into Iraq was based on a bet about who could screw the place up more.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Let them eat cake: Laura Bush version
Many parts of Iraq are stable now. But, uh, of course, what we see on television is the one bombing a day that discourages everyone.This was an educated adult woman who said this.
I am disturbed by this for two reasons-
1.) The morbid optimism this gargoyle displays, "if only those Iraqis could make lemonade out of these exploding lemons". On what planet is such a statement acceptable?
2.) She is absolutely wrong and should know better. The problem with the violence in Iraq isn't just the bombings, it is the endless murder and sectarian violence. Either Laura Bush was being intellectually dishonest or she really doesn't know what is going on in Iraq. Neither option looks very good.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
A Realistic Assessment
...How long must we stay under the Petraeus plan? Perhaps 10 years. At least five. In any case, long after George W. Bush has returned to Crawford, Texas, for good.While the GOP is offering rosy assessments about our winning in Iraq, we all know that just isn't true. This is something that will take a very long time to work itself out. We can no longer say, "wait 6 months to see if it gets better"
...
To a degree little understood by the U.S. public, Petraeus is engaged in a giant “do-over.” It is a near-reversal of the approach taken by Petraeus’s predecessor as commander of multinational forces in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, until the latter was relieved in early February, and most other top U.S. commanders going back to Rick Sanchez and Tommy Franks. Casey sought to accelerate both the training of Iraqi forces and American withdrawal. By 2008, the remaining 60,000 or so U.S. troops were supposed to be hunkering down in four giant “superbases,” where they would be relatively safe. Under Petraeus’s plan, a U.S. military force of 160,000 or more is setting up hundreds of “mini-forts” all over Baghdad and the rest of the country, right in the middle of the action.
...
And that means the future of Iraq depends on the long-term presence of U.S. forces in a way it did not just a few months ago. “We’re putting down roots,” says Philip Carter, a former U.S. Army captain who returned last summer from a year of policing and training in the hot zone around Baquba. “The Americans are no longer willing to accept failure in order to put Iraqis in the lead. You can’t let the mission fail just for the sake of diplomacy.”
Don't say I never did anything for you
A recording of their recent live show in Washington D.C.
Real Player & Windows Media
Enjoy
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Maybe they should send Britney Spears there
We are also putting our injured soldiers in Third World hospitals. Men and women who have bravely served in our horrible wars are getting hurt every day. Now when they turn to us for help, our government ships them off to hospitals that don't work.
But that isn't important, BRITNEY SPEARS IS IN REHAB!!!!!!!!
Oh wait, isn't that Anna Nicole Smith's rotting corpse? OMG!!!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
PBS blows it
Yet, as anyone who has lived through the last 7 years can attest, the press has not performed heroically. In fact, one of the problems with the press is that it has NOT opposed this administration. And what is interesting is that they asked all of the pertinent questions, yet decided not to include it. If you go to the website you can read all of the interviews they did on this subject. However, to paint a pretty picture, the documentary does the following:
- Suggests that the refusal of reporters to reveal their sources in the Plame affair is equivalent to all other types of confidential protection. Yet, the Plame affair was qualitatively different and they only briefly covered this. The reporters were protecting the powerful in this instance, they were not protecting sources worried about persecution from the powerful. The press was being used by the White House to attack a critic.
- The documentary did not look at how cozy the relationship between the press and the administration can be. As evidenced by testimony in the Libby trial, it is shocking how close these two parties are.
- Presents Judith Miller as a martyr and really doesn't scrutinize her relationship to the Bush administration and the War in Iraq. She had far too cozy of a relationship with her sources on this and was dishonest when citing who her sources were. To pretend that she was somehow behaving admirably is ridiculous.
- Does not challenge Bob Woodward. At the end of the first hour we learn that Bob Woodward was the first journalist to be told about Valerie Plame. However, there are no follow up questions about why it took him so long to come forward or why he did not tell his editor about what he knew.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Retro Video
Thursday, February 15, 2007
The Liebys: Profiles in Courage
You see, he is courageous because he had the cajones to say this after he was safely in office. Had he said it before, when he might have been held accountable for his stupidity, he could have been voted out of office. Thus, he has lived up to the politically courageous legacy of Joe Lieberman.The Democratic majority in the House has adopted a resolution condemning this strategy, expressing disapproval without offering any alternatives. Ironically, they offer a stay-the-course resolution. The majority is clear on what it is against, but does not say wait is for, leaving us with what exists right now, the status quo. The resolution sends the wrong message to the President, to our troops and to our enemies. It will not get my vote. …
It is counterproductive for 535 members of the House of Representatives and Senate to micromanage the war. …
The only way we should leave Iraq is the same way we went in, together.
Are you f*ing kidding me
In the South, we have a wonderful saying and it goes like this: Get ‘er done. Our soldiers want to get it done and come home, and our President wants the same thing, and this Congress should demand the exact same thing. Let’s get out there and get ‘er done.I don't support capital punishment, but this woman should be hanged for stupidity. We have lost 3,000+ soldiers, billions of dollars and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi lives and this idiot thinks that we should follow the Blue Collar Comedy Hour Foreign Policy Doctrine.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
My Dogs are "Snow" Fiends
It also doesn't help that when they look up, it seems like there is some white powder on each of their noses.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Lovely Little Evening
Friday, February 09, 2007
The Big Story
Crazy Ass Astronaut Goes After Competitor
Buxom Blonde with History of Drug Problems Dies
Blogger Says Something Rude About Republicans
Speaker of House Gets Jet that Flies to California
Not news:
US Spurns Attempt to Disarm Iran Peacefully
If only Condi Rice flashed some boob...
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Thursday Night Video- Scandinavian Version
It is either a song to wake up to, or drive late at night to. If anyone is willing to go out there and figure this out, that would be great.
Local News as National News
We won't begin to solve the big problems until the press learns what these problems are. That astronaut story was not one of them.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
How many more corners?
More American troops were killed in combat in Iraq over the past four months - at least 334 through Jan. 31 - than in any comparable stretch since the war began, according to an Associated Press analysis of casualty records.God forbid we debate the merits of continuing our adventure in Iraq because we don't want to hurt the morale of the soldiers. The worst thing that can happen is for a corpse to have no morale.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
More Mythology
One of the losers in the weekend oratorical marathon was retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who repeatedly invoked the West Point motto of "Duty, Honor, Country," forgetting that few in this particular audience have much experience with, or sympathy for, the military.
As Oliver Willis points out, in what world is this true? Which is the party that supports veterans? While the Republicans have done everything they can to cut VA programs, the Democrats have worked hard to protect them. While Republicans have tried to provide our soldiers with sub-standard equipment, the Democrats have stood up for increased accountability.
David Broder is supposed to be the ideal Washington reporter, but how is he ideal? Ideally lazy? Ideally intellectually dishonest?
Monday, February 05, 2007
How Many More Will Die for a Lie?
NPR has amassed a graphic depiction of the Iraq War deaths here. Called The Toll of War, it details both US and Iraqi deaths. Interestingly, it also compares other Iraqi death estimates to the Bush Administration. Good thing Bush Inc. has so much credibility, 30k sounds so much better than 650k! Who ever heard of this Johns Hopkins University anyway, what is that some sort of internet-based diploma mill?
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Friday, February 02, 2007
Mary Cheney: Horrible Person
The apple didn't fall far from the tree with Mary Cheney. The lesbian daughter of Dick and Liz Cheney is about to become a parent. Yet instead of taking on the American Taliban who consistently attack gays and lesbians or the members of the Bush adiministration who have made the LGBT community their bogeyman. She has put her head in the sand and stated that her having a child is not a political issue.
“When Heather and I decided to have a baby, I knew it wasn’t going to be the most popular decision,” Ms. Cheney said, referring to her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe. She then gestured to her middle—any bulge disguised by a boxy jacket—and asserted: “This is a baby. This is a blessing from God. It is not a political statement. It is not a prop to be used in a debate, on either side of a political issue. It is my child."Cue Dan Savage:
Mary Cheney exhibits the worst type of hypocrisy. She gets to live a comfortable and protected life while millions of gays and lesbians are under attack. She can't wash their struggle off of her hands.Nice try, Mary.
Yes, it’s a baby, not a prop. My kid isn’t a prop either, but that never stopped right-wingers from attacking me and my boyfriend over our decision to become parents. The fitness of same-sex couples to parent is very much part of the political debate thanks to the GOP and the Christian bigots that make up its lunatic “base.” You’re a Republican, Mary, you worked on both of your father’s campaigns, and you kept your mouth clamped shut while Karl Rove and George Bush ran around the country attacking gay people, gay parents, and our children in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006. It’s a little late to declare the private choices of gays and lesbians unfit for public debate, Mary.
And so long as your party insists on making the fitness of homosexuals to marry or parent—or, hell, exist—a subject of public debate, Mary, your decision to become a parent is germane and very much fit for public discussion and debate. The GOP’s selective embrace of some pregnant dykes—only knocked-up lesbians with powerful connections will be treated with respect—is a disconnect that demands answers. From you, from your father, from your venomous mother, from the idiot president you helped elect. Is that fair? Maybe not. Want to blame someone? Go look in the mirror—and then come out swinging, Mary—for yourself, your partner, and your child.