From The Reagan Years

A blast from the past, with a warning you might be surprised by…

Former Reagan Official Warns Of Potential Bush Dictatorship

Paul Craig Roberts, a former Reagan administrati on official, has written an interesting article that underscores much of the fear among the progressive/ democratic community regarding the Bush-Cheney administrati on and their continued assault on the US Constitution al system. In the article, Roberts warns that Bush has put into place all the necessary measures [...]

Tags: Paul Craig Roberts, Reagan, Bush Dictatorship

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Nudge and a Tweak

Fascinating bit of insight into Presidential Postering and Press Conferencing…

NeoCons Exposed: Voyeurs Listen in to the "Real Stuff" on Trains and Ships

THURSDAY, 12 JULY 2007 — 4 pm ACELA/AMTRAK — NEW YORK TO DC NeoCon High Priest Bill Kristol sits one row behind liberal blog-phenom diva Arianna Huffington and proceeds to chat about his role in nudging and tweaking President [...]

Tags: Kristol, Snow, Huffington

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The Field is Floundering

So far, no faves.  That’s gotta be frightening to the candidates.

AP Poll:  The Top GOP Candidate Is…

Perhaps this should be titled, "The Top GOP Pick Isn’t," because: "The latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that nearly a quarter of Republicans are unwilling to [...]

Tags: 2008 Campaign, Republican Presidential Candidates, McCain, Thompson, Romney, Giuliani

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This is Just Strange

Put your reading glasses on.  You, too, can enter a "different universe". Think Progress has some salient thoughts on what Brooks writes.

David Brooks Enters Bush’s ‘Universe,’ Walks Away Entranced By President’s ‘Self-Confidence’

Describing it as an encounter that was “like entering a different universe,” New York Times columnist David Brooks recounts a recent conversation he had with President Bush in the White House. In the editorial entitled “Heroes and History,” Brooks writes: I left the 110-minute session thinking that far from being worn down by the past few [...]

Tags: David Brooks, New York Times, Think Progress

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Certainly Seems Suspicious

When a top General announces something this dramatically optimistic about Iraq, you honestly do have to question the statement.  Really. John at AmericaBlog ain’t buyin’ it…

IT’S A MIRACLE!!! Iraq has SUDDENLY gotten MUCH BETTER in the past 24 hours!!! Praise Jesus, it’s a freaking MIRACLE!!!

The Pentagon apparently thinks the American people are stupid. Our top military commander, General Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is now suddenly announcing, just in time for the Iraq debate in Congress, that Iraq has suddenly improved amazingly! Even Baghdad, according to Pace, is amazingly safer! Now, that’s pretty quick work on the part of Pace, considering it was only last week that [...]

Tags: Pace, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Iraq, Baghdad

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Fairness Doctrine

There’s a huge debate underway right now concerning a proposal to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine for broadcasters.  Liberals are driving it, concerned about huge corporate ownership of hundreds of radio and TV stations which they see as limiting the "voices" in any community.  There is some validity to their concerns.  Conservative talk radio occupies more than 80% of the industry.  Some will say, absent any governmental demand for equal voices, it’s simply the open-market system in operation.  From the other side comes the argument that programming skews that dramatically Conservative because the Big Corporate Owners push it in that direction.  They feel bringing back the Fairness Doctrine would help guarantee the liberal ideas are given a fair shake for discussion. Reports like this one help bolster that position, it seems to me.

Pentagon reaches out to conservative bloggers.

Stocked full of “administration cronies,” the Pentagon’s public affairs division under assistant secretary of defense for public affairs Dorrance Smith, has set up a rapid-response project that “seeks to bypass the traditional media and work directly with talk radio and bloggers, mostly those with a heavily conservative tilt.” Once known as the “Surrogates Operation,” the [...]

Tags: Fairness Doctrine, Pentagon, Talk Radio, Bloggers

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Slightly Unethical

Wouldn’t you say?  Or, shall we jump right to "illegal"?

Largest Iraq Contract Rife With Errors

Matt Kelly of USA Today reports: "Government auditors discovered something odd last year when they reviewed KBR Inc.’s annual cost estimate to provide support services for US troops in Iraq. The contractor proposed charging $110 million for housing, food, water, laundry and other services on bases that had been [...]

Tags: KBR, Iraq, Contracts

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The Iraq War and Presidential Politics

So, let’s tackle one of the big questions of the day, shall we?

Is McCain Collapsing Because of the War?

Short answer, yes. Medium-length answer, no. Right answer: yes. It has become conventional wisdom that the extreme downward turn of John McCain’s presidential campaign is due, at least in part, to his public embrace of an extremely hawkish position on the Iraq war. This argument has become quite pervasive. It is even quite tempting for progressives to embrace this argument, since it offers an anti-war outlook on the 2008 campaign: support the Iraq war, and your bid for the White House will fail. For example, [...]

Tags: McCain, Iraq War, 2008 Campaign

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Hiding the Facts

The LA Times digs the dirt and comes up with a powerful story.  Crooks and Liars has the details…

House Committee Members Entangled In Cunningham Scandal – Refuse To Release Full Details

Via LATimes: An internal investigation that the House Intelligence Committee has refused to make public portrays the panel as embarrassingly entangled in the Randy “Duke” Cunningham bribery scandal. The report, a declassified version of which was obtained by the Los Angeles Times, describes the committee as a dysfunctional entity that served as a crossroads for almost [...]

Tags: House Intelligence Committee, Cunningham, Bribery

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Redefining Redeployment

Tony Snow.  Then.  And now.

‘Redeploying does not necessarily mean leaving’

Tony Snow, yesterday: Q: [Some senators] are talking about leaving [Iraq], because they want to start redeploying troops by the end of this year. That’s leaving, isn’t it? SNOW: No, redeploying does not necessarily mean leaving. Tony Snow, in November 2006: SNOW: …If you’re talking about phased redeployment, it means we’re trying to get out. It looks like you’re [...]

Tags: Tony Snow, Redeployment

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Worth Noting

From the wonderful world of media..

Moore Moves On — But He’ll Still "Be A Lot More Skeptical" About CNN

Michael Moore is apparently no longer CNN’s "worst nightmare."Quoting the AP: "He noted in an interview Monday that CNN had [...]

UPDATE:  Additional details:

Moore on CNN: “The truce has been signed, the peace pipe has been smoked,” Will appear on Blitzer Wednesday

Michael Moore will appear on CNN Wednesday with Wolf Blitzer to put some closure on the feud that he and the network have been engaged in for the past week. “I’m not expecting a dozen roses or make-up sex,” Moore joked today, “I only want a promise that there will be no more distorted distractions [...]

Tags: Michael Moore, Sicko, CNN

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New Numbers Buoy Republicans

New poll numbers are getting a lot of attention among Conservative bloggers this evening. They are crowing over a big bounce in approval among Republicans polled.  Why?  Read on.

Republicans Coming Home

According to Rasmussen, 80% of Republicans approve of the way President Bush is doing his job – which is low, but still a vast improvement. The source of this resurgence in GOP support for the President? A certain press conference [...]

And, don’t you just know the timing of this report is just perfect to keep the trend continuing..

Report says al-Qaida seeks to attack U.S.

The terrorist network Al-Qaida will likely leverage its contacts and capabilities in Iraq to mount an attack on U.S. soil, according to a new National Intelligence Estimate on [...]

Or, maybe not.  Let’s look at the numbers from a different perspective..

Statistics, Damned Statistics, And Lies

As another small measure of the dishonesty of Fox News, note this report on the release of a new presidential approval poll. The Rasmussen daily tracking poll was cited this evening by Fox anchor and managing editor Brit Hume. Hume’s characterization of the poll, complete with a graphic to illustrate the point, was that Bush [...]

And, of course, there’s this perspective on Bush’s popularity..

Is Bush’s support worse than no support?

GOP senators weigh pros and cons of accepting a [...]

Tags: Rasmussen Poll, Bush Approval, al-Qaida, National Intelligence Estimate, NIE

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Deal?

Or no deal?  Is this just a bit fishy?  Joe at AmericaBlog thinks so…

GOP’s Senate Leader wants to institute permanent filibuster on Iraq votes

The Republican Senators don’t want to end the war in Iraq. They want to stay the course. Look no further than what Republican leader Mitch McConnell proposed — a permanent filibuster on any Iraq related issue. The GOPers are in a filibuster frenzy. They’ll do anything to protect their [...]

Tags: McConnell, Filibuster, Iraq

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Execution Debate

Here’s one to really fire up the debate over legal executions.  Get your typing fingers ready.  On both sides.

‘It’s getting scary; they don’t want to hear the new facts’

If this doesn’t help expose the problems with capital punishment, I don’t know what more it will take. A Georgia man is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday for killing a police officer in 1989, even though the case against him has withered in recent years as most of the key witnesses at [...]

UPDATE: Davis Gets Stay of Execution for 90 Days

Tags: Capital Punishment, Legal Execution

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It’s Not Easy

Truth be told, Congress has a tough job.  Especially with an Administration that picks and chooses what it wants to believe and obey. So, the question becomes…

Can Congress Stop Bush’s War?

The Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Charlie Savage, has a must-read article today in which he reminds us of a fundamental truth about the history of Congressional efforts to end wars: while there have been many examples of Congress voting to end authorizations and/or to cut off funding for ill-conceived military adventures, such efforts, [...]

Tags: Congress, Iraq War, War Funding, Charlie Savage, Boston Globe

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Another Example

Another example of how we’re killing our environment.

Report: Dead zone in Gulf grows

The "dead zone" in the northern Gulf, at the end of the Mississippi River system, is the second-largest area of oxygen-depleted coastal waters in the world. Low oxygen, or hypoxia, can be caused by pollution from sources including farm fertilizer, soil erosion and [...]

Tags: Dead Zone, Hypoxia, Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans

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Major Endorsement

I’m reading a lot tonight that hints at this being a really big deal, perhaps a turning point for the Clinton campaign.  What do you think?

Joe Wilson Endorses Hillary!

Joe Wilson just endorsed Hillary during an ongoing conference call with liberal bloggers. Wilson just said that "she is the one candidate in my judgment who understands the need to get America out [...]

Tags: Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, Hillary Clinton, CIA

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Outrageous Stupidity

There’s no other way to describe this news, except in more graphic terms, unacceptable for your truly.

Hurricane Katrina Ice Going Down Drain

From the Austin American-Statesman Found for us by the Texas news ninja, Betsy! "GLOUCESTER, Mass. — After nearly two years, thousands of truck miles and $12.5 million in storage costs, a cold relic of the flawed Hurricane Katrina relief effort is going down the drain. The federal government is getting rid of thousands of pounds of ice [...]

Tags: Hurricane Katrina, FEMA, Ice

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Endless Days

Hope these folks are up to the challenge.  It’s gonna get downright challenging for some, I’m sure.

Boo Yah!

A line just got drawn on the floor of the Senate by Sen. Harry Reid.  (Sure, it was a bit bumbly, but it was a line nonetheless — and a step in the right direction.)  The US Senate will operate 24-hours a day from Tuesday forward until bills are either passed or the Republican party antes [...]

Tags: Reid, Fillibuster

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Words of Warning

To the White House.  From a Republican leader in Congress.  But, the blogger wants to know, are the words real?  Or another empty threat?

Still waiting for the ‘fur to start flying’

Oh great, another Republican senator is warning the White House about the caucus being this close to bolting with Bush on Iraq. …Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, told CNN that he warned Rove last week that “The president is a young man and should think about his legacy.” He should know history will not be kind unless he [...]

Tags: Voinovich, White House, Iraq War, Rove

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