I’m from a small town, too. Iowa. This is a very important point. Because the tide is turning.
For those on both the east and west coasts, it must be galling when the Midwest is referred to as "the heartland." After all, the coasts are far more populous, and a good case could be made that the American character owes more to the changing mix of Brooklyn, than all the tree lined streets of all the tiny towns scattered over Indiana, or Ohio, or Iowa. But those Midwestern small towns define a certain idea of America. Those are the towns that were home to Mr. Smith, and yes, to Mr. Lincoln. From a distance, [...]
Tags: Iraq War
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And the fat GUY is still singing..
Michael Moore is still pretty mad at CNN for airing numerous inaccuracies in their “fact check” segment of his new documentary SiCKO. Says Moore: “I’m about to become your worst nightmare.” More from his new open letter to CNN chief Jonathan Klein: I won’t waste your time rehashing your errors. You know what they are. What [...]
Tags: Michael Moore, Sicko, CNN
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It’s not like the Iraqi government wants our help anymore…
As war supporters see it, U.S. troops need to stay in Iraq for the indefinite future in order to provide some semblance of security in the country. Today, Nouri al Maliki effectively said our presence is no longer needed. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saturday that the Iraqi army and police are capable of keeping security in [...]
Tags: Iraq War, al Maliki
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Over at the "Political Animals" blog, Kevin Drum has been busy today. Two very interesting (and important) posts. Both dealing with the Iraq War and its impact on people.
.Over at Watching Those We Chose, Blue Girl has the latest on personality disorder discharges, the military’s way of dumping soldiers who sustain psychiatric damage during war by claiming that their problems are merely preexisting conditions that they’d had [...]
So how are we doing on training the Iraqi security forces? Compare and contrast:September 2005: The number of Iraqi army battalions that can fight insurgents without U.S. and coalition help has dropped from three to one, top U.S. generals [...]
Tags: Iraq War, Personality Disorder Discharges, Iraqi Security Forces
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Americans just ain’t buyin’ the War in Iraq.
Number of Americans who consider President Bush’s escalation in Iraq a “failure.” Additionally 68 percent “disapprove of the way the president is handling the war in Iraq,” according to [...]
Tags: Iraq War, Newsweek Poll
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Yeah, that Iraqi Parliament is really interested in putting together a plan.
There was some talk in the spring that the Iraqi Parliament, barely able to function anyway, would break for the summer. The reaction was overwhelmingly negative in the U.S., even among White House [...]
Tags: Iraqi Parliament, August Vacation
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Heard this on Countdown last night, but didn’t get a chance to come up for air until this (Saturday) evening. It leaves me shaking my head in disbelievement.
The White House will not release records to a congressional investigation of Pat Tillman’s “friendly fire” death in Afghanistan: The White House has refused to give Congress documents about the death of former NFL player Pat Tillman, with White House counsel Fred F. Fielding saying that certain papers relating to discussion of the friendly-fire shooting “implicate [...]
Tags: Tillman, Executive Privilege, Bush Administration
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Pure and simple. Madness. With support for this concept diminishing each day, how can the Administration continue to pound away at this set of talking points.
U.S. in Iraq in 2009? ‘President hopes so,’ advisor says
The United States will be involved in Iraq for a long time, says Stephen Hadley, the president’s national security adviser – certainly beyond his time in office and the president’s term. “Will we be engaged in Iraq after January 2009?’’ Hadley said in an interview with National Public Radio’s All Things Considered this evening . “I think the president hopes so. “And I think if [...]
Tags: Iraq War, Stephen Hadley, NPR, All Things Considered
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To keep our troops fighting, but not okay to try to force the Iraq parliament to stay around and get some work done? Don’t they have air conditioners? Ooops. Forgot. No electricity, probably.
Snow Tries To Justify Iraqi Gov’t Recess: "It’s 130 Degrees There"
The White House on Friday appeared resigned to the fact that the Iraqi parliament is going to take August off, even though it has just eight weeks to show progress on military, political and economic benchmarks prescribed by the United States. "My understanding is at this juncture they’re going to [...]
Tags: Iraqi Parliament, White House, August Recess, Tony Snow
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This is quite forward-thinking on the part of two key Republican Senators. And, their timing simply could not be better. Excellent way to make a point.
Warner And Lugar Aren’t Waiting For September
A day after Bush told Congress to stay out telling him what to do in Iraq, two leading GOP senators rebuffed him and introduced a bill that would require the president to present to Congress a change in mission by October and to begin implementing it by 2008. In essence, John Warner and Richard Lugar are blowing past whatever [...]
Tags: Warner, Lugar, Iraq, Congress
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Don’t you know, if he’s saying this much publically, he must be really angry inside. And, he makes a couple of extremely good points, too. Go. And read.
Libby Judge Speaks on Commutation
In his first public remarks since President Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s prison term, Judge Reggie Walton said he was "perplexed" by the president’s belief that Walton’s sentence was "excessive." [...]
Tags: Libby, Commutation, Judge Walton
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Here’s the situation: America elected Democrats to Congress, based on promises to get us out of Iraq. We’re stilll in Iraq, and most efforts to get us out have been thwarted. What happens then? Your numbers tank. That reaction ain’t brain surgery and should tell Congress a lot!
Congressional Approval in Free Fall
According to the latest AP-Ipsos survey, public satisfaction with Congress has fallen 11 points since May, to just 24% — matching "its previous low, which came in June 2006, five months before Democrats won control of the House and Senate due to public discontent with the job Republicans were doing." Meanwhile, President Bush’s job approval rating [...]
Tags: AP-Ipsos Survey, Congress, President Bush
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Tony Snow didn’t see this one coming…
O’Reilly takes on Tony Snow, ‘You can’t win’ in Iraq’
They’ve lost FOX News. It’s over. "…O’Reilly turned on his special guest during the segment, White House press secretary Tony Snow, saying, "You can’t win … unless the Iraqi people turn on all the terrorists. And they’re not." O’Reilly said he agreed with the president that [...]
O’Reilly wasn’t the only one to change course…
The Jig Is Up
When Peggy Noonan refers to President Bush as “weird,” you know the wheels have come off the wagon. "As I watched the news conference, it occurred to me that one of the things that might leave people feeling somewhat disoriented is the president’s seemingly effortless high spirits. He’s in a good mood. There was the usual [...]
But. Wait. There’s more!
Support for Bush slipping in Kansas.
As the pro-Bush Wichita Eagle on Tuesday called on President Bush to “face reality” and “redeploy” U.S. troops out of Iraq, staunch Bush ally Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) also qualified his support for the war, stating that his support for Bush’s policy is “not locked into concrete: “We have to make some very tough decisions…We [...]
Tags: Bill O’Reilly, Iraq War, Tony Snow
Tags: Peggy Noonan
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Just a couple of notes about the economy. It IS Friday the 13th, after all…
Confidence drops to nearly 1-year low
Consumer confidence slid to its lowest point in almost a year as worries about job availability, high gasoline prices and the severity of the housing slump weighed on peoples’ minds. The steep drop disappointed economists and raised fresh questions about [...]
Retail sales take sharpest plunge in nearly 2 years
Consumers put away their wallets in June, sending retail sales crashing by the sharpest amount in nearly two years. The Commerce Department reported Friday that retail sales fell by 0.9 percent last month, the biggest drop since [...]
Tags: Economy, Consumer Confidence, Retail Sales
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I was. Honestly, I was.
Two-Thirds of Iraq Suspects Let Go; Only 600 Sent to Gov’t
U.S. and Iraqi government officials have released approximately 44,000 of 65,000 suspected Iraqi insurgents or sectarian killers detained at the theater level since March 2003, Inside the Pentagon is reporting. Over the same time period, fewer than 600 captives have [...]
On the other hand, THIS doesn’t surprise me. Not one little bit.
Report: Government secrecy on the rise.
In a new report released today, OpenTheGovernment.org concludes that the increase in government secrecy during the Bush administration has been “unprecedented”: In the past six years, the basic principle of openness as the underpinning of democracy has been serious undermined. The Administration has taken an extreme view of the power of the presidency. In its view, [...]
Tags: Iraqi Insurgents
Tags: Government Secrecy, Open Government
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Really good point!
That Al Qaeda in Iraq that Bush keeps talking about "did not exist before the Sept. 11 attacks"
Bush loves to talk about Al Qaeda. But, no surprise, he doesn’t get his facts right. Because, basically, he fostered the creation of the Al Qaeda that exists in Iraq. The amazing thing is that the NY Times is actually calling him on it: "…But his references to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and his assertions that it is the same group that attacked the United States in 2001, have greatly oversimplified the nature of the insurgency in Iraq and its relationship with the Qaeda leadership. There is no question that the group is [...]
One of the bloggers over at Daily Kos has some thoughts on this matter, too:
It’s al-Qaeda, All the Way Down
I went to the dry cleaners this week, and some al-Qaeda laundry worker lost a button off my shirt. Then the al-Qaeda gas station had the prices back up to $3, and my al-Qaeda molar started to hurt, and I had to visit the al-Qaeda dentist. So I really just had an al-Qaeda of a day. You think I’m overusing that term? Obviously, Bush [...]
UPDATE: It’s not just Bush. McCain’s spewing al Qaeda references, too.
McCain’s Iraq Speech Today Mentions Al Qaeda 15 Times
John McCain is giving a speech on Iraq right now that his campaign is billing as the start of a forceful comeback bid. The McCain camp has just sent out a copy of his prepared remarks, and it’s clear [...]
Tags: al Qaeda, Bush, Iraq War
Tags: McCain
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The list gets longer. More GOP’ers are being busted on nasty sex allegations. We’ll build on the list right here, if it grows any further. For now, we’ll defer to the folks at FireDogLake for a succinct summary. I’m guessing there might be one on the list you haven’t heard of!
Late Nite FDL: Grand Old Perverts
There must be something in the air. Either that or we have arrived at the Republican mating season, for we are catching more and more of them participating in their bizarre courtship rituals. Most of us are at least passingly familiar at this point with the tale of Senator Dave Vitter of Louisiana, a very [...]
And, then, there is THIS tidbit. Multitasking, I see.
Vitter Received Calls From DC Madam During House Roll Call Votes
A woman accused of running a Washington prostitution ring placed five phone calls to David Vitter while he was a House member, including two while roll call votes were under way, according to telephone and congressional records. Vitter, a Louisiana Republican now in the Senate, acknowledged Monday that [...]
UPDATE: Oh, by the way, Allen in Florida says we’ve got it all wrong!
All This Sex Talk
Florida State Rep. Bob Allen proclaims his innocence: Rep. Bob Allen, a Merritt Island Republican who was first elected to the state House in 2000, told a Central Florida television station that it was “a very big misunderstanding” and a “gross mistake.” “I’m not in anyway associated with that they are saying, this is disgusting,” said Allen [...]
Tags: Vitter, Canal Street Madam, Bob Allen, David Almond
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Keith Olbermann sprung a bit of a surprise last night on those of us who regularly watch "Countdown". A "Special Comment" that wasn’t widely touted in advance. Still, it was written and delivered as only Olbermann can do…
Special Comment: On Michael Chertoff’s Gut
Keith Olbermann lets the Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, know how insecure the homeland must be if we are to rely on his “gut.”…"So there are your choices: bureaucratic self-protection, political manipulation of the worst kind, the dropping of opaque hints, a gaffe [...]
Tags: Olbermann, Special Comment, Chertoff
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