Catching Up From Thursday

I was otherwise occupied Thursday night, and didn’t catch Countdown with Keith Olbermann.  But, you can always count on the blogosphere to snag the best parts of the show.  via Crooks and Liars, here’s a high point from Thursday…

Wishin’ and hopin’ and waitin’

On tonight’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann lays out a timeline of the Bush administration’s shell game leading up to the surge and how every time they were asked about details, the press and the American people were continually told to wait. Ret. Army Colonel and former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson, sits [...]

UPDATE: It’s called "A Trend"  The 8pm Cable Picture Comes Into Focus

Last night, Countdown with Keith Olbermann came within 19,000 viewers of The O’Reilly Factor in the 25-54 demo. Countdown beat [...]

And, for your true "ratings junkies", here are the actual numbers.. also courtesy of TV Newser

Tags: Countdown, Keith Olbermann, Iraq War, Wilkerson

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Can’t Be Pinned Down

If there’s nothing on paper, it does make it more difficult to pin somebody down over the details.  When is a report not a report?  We’re soon to find out..

About that Petraeus report…

It looks like the political world no longer needs to debate who’s writing next week’s report on the administration’s war policy and conditions in Iraq. ThinkProgress noticed this Washington Times piece that highlighted a minor detail: there is no report. A senior military officer said there will be no written presentation to the president on security [...]

and, more thoughts, via AMERICAblog:

Petraeus refusing to provide congress with written progress report on Iraq as promised

Tags: Patraeus, War Policy, Conditions in Iraq

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Tough Times

And a rough day.

Bush’s Horrible Day In Sydney

President Bush had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the Sydney Opera House. He’d only reached the third sentence of Friday’s speech to business leaders, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, when he committed his first gaffe. "Thank you for being such a fine host for the [...]

Tags: George W. Bush, Sydney Opera House, APEC

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Posturing For The Presidency

Edwards wants the job. He really does.  That’s why he’s willing to go out on a limb on the Iraq issue…

Edwards Updates Iraq Position

The phrase he used that’s capturing the attention of bloggers is "No timetable, no funding, no excuses." Notice how clear and direct and unmistakable it is. He’s not worried about seeming [...]

Tags: John Edwards, 2008 Campaign, Iraq War

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Good Move

Gotta hand it to Olbermann….this is a great way to get out of a tough situation..

Olbermann Names Himself Worst Person

Keith Olbermann brought some of his MSNBC shtick to halftime of the Saints-Colts game on NBC. He put a new [...]

Tags: Olbermann

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More Advance Work

There really isn’t going to be a need for the Patraeus Report next week.  Every time you turn around, there’s more hints of what it will contain coming out.  Even though, as has been reported, there won’t actually be a printed report…

Petraeus on Iraq: ‘It has not worked out as we had hoped.’

In anticipation of the White House’s report next week, Gen. David Petraeus sent a letter to U.S. troops today. Brandon Friedman, who served in Iraq and is now a senior adviser to Vote Vets, obtained a copy of the letter and notes that most of it “essentially says what everyone expects him to say.” On [...]

Tags: Patraeus, Vote Vets

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Spinning The Economy

Two takes on today’s economic news.  Should be pretty easy to figure out where each comes from…

Fact Sheet: More Than 8.2 Million Jobs Created Since August 2003

From the White House:Today, The Bureau Of Labor Statistics Released New Jobs Figures. Nonfarm payroll employment edged down in August by 4,000 jobs, meaning our economy has created 1.6 million jobs in the last 12 months, and 8.22 million since [...]

Negative Job Growth In August

Forget about monthly job growth, this economy actually shed jobs last month for the first time in four years. That’s right, negative job growth. The alleged unemployment rate stayed steady at 4.6% only because so many people left the job market. I guess we’ll be spared [...]

It’s all a matter of perspective…

Tags: Job Growth, Economy, Employment

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Back Off!!

Looks like a lot of us need to back off a bit on criticism that the White House was going to "ghost write" the status report on the Iraq War, instead of letting General Patraeus handle it.  I didn’t like the looks of that, thinking it was going to lead to a whitewashed report.  One little problem in that line of reasoning – it’s not correct. Seems the prez is SUPPOSED to write the report…

Right wing outraged by correct labeling of Iraq report.

Yesterday, the Washington Times reported that Congressional leaders have begun calling the upcoming Iraq assessment “the Bush report” rather than crediting it to Gen. David Petraeus — a change that the paper and other right wingers claim is an effort to “undermine” Petraeus’ credibility. But, as TPM’s Greg Sargent points out, the legislation calling for [...]

Tags: Bush Report, Patraeus Report, Greg Sargent, Iraq War

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Let’s Go To The Videotape

Osama’s back.  With another sparkling appearance, via videotape…

Osama bin Laden breaks silence, issues new video message

Osama bin Laden hasn’t had much to say in a while, but the terrorist has released a new video that, given the content, appears to have been made sometime since May. OBL seems to have quite a bit to say about domestic affairs in the U.S. He says President Bush’s words echo “neoconservatives like Cheney, Rumsfeld, [...]

Tags: Osama bin Laden, OBL, Videotape

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Those Dead Honeybees

Remember the stories earlier this year?  How entire colonies of honeybees were dying off?  We may have an answer…

Virus Suspected In Mass US Honeybee Deaths

Scientists sifting genetic material from thriving and ailing bee colonies say a virus appears to be a prime suspect — but is unlikely to be the only culprit — in the mass die-offs of honeybees reported last fall and winter. The die-offs, in which adult bees typically vanished without returning to hives, were reported by about a fourth of the nation’s commercial beekeepers. The losses captured public attention as [..]

Tags: Honeybee Deaths

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T.G.I.F.

We awoke today to the word that General Patraeus thinks we might be able to pull some 4,000 U.S. troops out of Iraq come January. First reaction? I thought, "good news". However, as evening rolled around and I began to read through my bloglines collection of information, some very good writers had obviously had time, during the day, to dissect that report.  And, dissect it, they did…

Why Petraeus’ concession is less than it appears

At first blush, it may seem encouraging that Gen. David Petraeus is suddenly open to the idea of withdrawing about 4,000 troops from Iraq in January. The news, however, isn’t nearly as heartening as it may appear. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus has indicated a willingness to consider a drawdown of one brigade of between 3,500 [...]

Petraeus

Krugman:  Second, Gen. Petraeus has a history of making wildly overoptimistic assessments of progress in Iraq that happen to be convenient for his political masters.I’ve written before about the op-ed article Gen. Petraeus published six weeks before the 2004 election, claiming [...]

P.S. Don’t forget, scroll down for more fresh posts…

Tags: Patraeus, Troop Withdrawal

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Catching Up From Thursday

I was otherwise occupied Thursday night, and didn’t catch Countdown with Keith Olbermann.  But, you can always count on the blogosphere to snag the best parts of the show.  via Crooks and Liars, here’s a high point from Thursday…

Wishin’ and hopin’ and waitin’

On tonight’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann lays out a timeline of the Bush administration’s shell game leading up to the surge and how every time they were asked about details, the press and the American people were continually told to wait. Ret. Army Colonel and former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson, sits [...]

UPDATE: It’s called "A Trend"  The 8pm Cable Picture Comes Into Focus

Last night, Countdown with Keith Olbermann came within 19,000 viewers of The O’Reilly Factor in the 25-54 demo. Countdown beat [...]

And, for your true "ratings junkies", here are the actual numbers.. also courtesy of TV Newser

Tags: Countdown, Keith Olbermann, Iraq War, Wilkerson

Powered by Qumana

Thanks for reading!

Can’t Be Pinned Down

If there’s nothing on paper, it does make it more difficult to pin somebody down over the details.  When is a report not a report?  We’re soon to find out..

About that Petraeus report…

It looks like the political world no longer needs to debate who’s writing next week’s report on the administration’s war policy and conditions in Iraq. ThinkProgress noticed this Washington Times piece that highlighted a minor detail: there is no report. A senior military officer said there will be no written presentation to the president on security [...]

and, more thoughts, via AMERICAblog:

Petraeus refusing to provide congress with written progress report on Iraq as promised

Tags: Patraeus, War Policy, Conditions in Iraq

Powered by Qumana

Thanks for reading!

Tough Times

And a rough day.

Bush’s Horrible Day In Sydney

President Bush had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the Sydney Opera House. He’d only reached the third sentence of Friday’s speech to business leaders, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, when he committed his first gaffe. "Thank you for being such a fine host for the [...]

Tags: George W. Bush, Sydney Opera House, APEC

Powered by Qumana

Thanks for reading!

Posturing For The Presidency

Edwards wants the job. He really does.  That’s why he’s willing to go out on a limb on the Iraq issue…

Edwards Updates Iraq Position

The phrase he used that’s capturing the attention of bloggers is "No timetable, no funding, no excuses." Notice how clear and direct and unmistakable it is. He’s not worried about seeming [...]

Tags: John Edwards, 2008 Campaign, Iraq War

Powered by Qumana

Thanks for reading!

Good Move

Gotta hand it to Olbermann….this is a great way to get out of a tough situation..

Olbermann Names Himself Worst Person

Keith Olbermann brought some of his MSNBC shtick to halftime of the Saints-Colts game on NBC. He put a new [...]

Tags: Olbermann

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Thanks for reading!

More Advance Work

There really isn’t going to be a need for the Patraeus Report next week.  Every time you turn around, there’s more hints of what it will contain coming out.  Even though, as has been reported, there won’t actually be a printed report…

Petraeus on Iraq: ‘It has not worked out as we had hoped.’

In anticipation of the White House’s report next week, Gen. David Petraeus sent a letter to U.S. troops today. Brandon Friedman, who served in Iraq and is now a senior adviser to Vote Vets, obtained a copy of the letter and notes that most of it “essentially says what everyone expects him to say.” On [...]

Tags: Patraeus, Vote Vets

Powered by Qumana

Thanks for reading!

Spinning The Economy

Two takes on today’s economic news.  Should be pretty easy to figure out where each comes from…

Fact Sheet: More Than 8.2 Million Jobs Created Since August 2003

From the White House:Today, The Bureau Of Labor Statistics Released New Jobs Figures. Nonfarm payroll employment edged down in August by 4,000 jobs, meaning our economy has created 1.6 million jobs in the last 12 months, and 8.22 million since [...]

Negative Job Growth In August

Forget about monthly job growth, this economy actually shed jobs last month for the first time in four years. That’s right, negative job growth. The alleged unemployment rate stayed steady at 4.6% only because so many people left the job market. I guess we’ll be spared [...]

It’s all a matter of perspective…

Tags: Job Growth, Economy, Employment

Powered by Qumana

Thanks for reading!

Back Off!!

Looks like a lot of us need to back off a bit on criticism that the White House was going to "ghost write" the status report on the Iraq War, instead of letting General Patraeus handle it.  I didn’t like the looks of that, thinking it was going to lead to a whitewashed report.  One little problem in that line of reasoning – it’s not correct. Seems the prez is SUPPOSED to write the report…

Right wing outraged by correct labeling of Iraq report.

Yesterday, the Washington Times reported that Congressional leaders have begun calling the upcoming Iraq assessment “the Bush report” rather than crediting it to Gen. David Petraeus — a change that the paper and other right wingers claim is an effort to “undermine” Petraeus’ credibility. But, as TPM’s Greg Sargent points out, the legislation calling for [...]

Tags: Bush Report, Patraeus Report, Greg Sargent, Iraq War

Powered by Qumana

Thanks for reading!

Let’s Go To The Videotape

Osama’s back.  With another sparkling appearance, via videotape…

Osama bin Laden breaks silence, issues new video message

Osama bin Laden hasn’t had much to say in a while, but the terrorist has released a new video that, given the content, appears to have been made sometime since May. OBL seems to have quite a bit to say about domestic affairs in the U.S. He says President Bush’s words echo “neoconservatives like Cheney, Rumsfeld, [...]

Tags: Osama bin Laden, OBL, Videotape

Powered by Qumana

Thanks for reading!