ccmask @ 92

Free SUV for a dead soldier? Was that a spoof?

I believe it is. But I had to check, it sounded so very like our George.

“Representative Amanda Tori Sentenz (R-FL)” …c’mon!

Wow, rxbus@72, that WaPo annotated NIE is an eye-opener. For me the money lines are “it’s worse than civil war, it’s close to anarchy” and “if the US withdraws quickly, things are likely to get much worse much faster.”

Call me cynical, but I’d guess BushCo is about ready to declare ‘mission accomplished’ in Iraq and move on to Iran. Who’s next? Syria? Jordan? I look forward to reading the next plaque on Douglas Feith’s door.

Bush would need Iraq as a base to act against Iran. But to do so would be suicidal for our troops in Iraq. Does he really believe that the Iranians would simply not respond to a direct attack by not EXPANDING their influence in Iraq.

It’s actually the SCIRI Badr Brigades that is most heavily influenced by Iran, not Moqtada’s Badr Brigades…and certainly not the Sunni/Baathist militias (who are now being supported by Saudi Arabia).

It’s the latter that are behind most of the attacks on the Shiite population and US forces.

But if Bush attempts to “retaliate” aginst the US the Badr Brigades and their supporters will be out in force.
Yes, they have Iranian weapons…after all they were trained and supplied in exile…WITH OUR TACIT SUPPORT…to fight Saddam. When we invaded these exiles poured across the border WITH THEIR WEAPONS. The “Coalition” worked with them to secure the South and East and provide a semblance of order. They were recruited into the IN and police. Moqtada al Sadr cringed at the presence of these “Iranian manipulated exiles” taking control and tried to place his “indigenous” populist non-exile group into position in Basra, Samarrah, and in the holy city of Najaf. The US and Brits came in on the side of the SCIRI militias.

Ahem!!!! Iranian WEAPONS? It’s not as if we didn’t know this for the past four years!

BTW Sadr’s Mahdi Army is primarily using arms taken from the caches of military weapons that were unprotected by US forces when they advanced on Baghdad. Those, and a lot of US weapons that have been given to them by the 30-50% of the ING/Police that are Sadr sympathisers and actual “police by day – Sadrist by night” infiltrators!

oddball @ 54

Wanna see spin, put it on pox news right now

Wallace follows with Mitch McConnel, who says we need to get off this history and look forward, and Wallace basically says, “okay.”

Hey that approach would be an easy way to get ready of those “burdensome” History classes out of the school curriculum and replace them with “Prophesy 1A”.

OT but funny:

Bush: ‘Every fallen soldier’s family will get a new SUV’

President Bush called on critics to tone down opposition to the Iraq conflict on Wednesday, as he announced his latest initiative to honor the troops who have fallen in Iraq by giving their families a brand new sport utility vehicle (SUV).

“In my new plan, every fallen soldier’s family will get a new SUV. I intend to give every military family who has sacrificed a loved one for freedom a brand new 2006 or 2007 SUV, paid for by the government,” the President announced while visiting a factory that produces Humvees for the war effort in Eurasia. “Some have said that this war isn’t worth fighting. They think the terrorists should win. My plan will show that America values those who made the ultimate sacrifice,” Bush continued.

Agghhhhhh! Shut up and we’ll give you an SUV, says the “America is addicted to Foreign Oil” President!

This has to be from the ONION!

OfT, I’m listening to Scooter’s GJ testimony from the audio links on CSPAN. Just prior to the 1:20:26 mark, Fitz absolutely hammers Scooter about whether he ever told WaPo’s Walter Pincus about Plame’s identity. It sounds to me as though Scooter can’t bring himself to absolutely rule it out, because he’s afraid Fitz has Pincus testimony that Scooter did tell him about Plame. Interested on others take on this, because from what we now know, it appears that Pincus didn’t tell Fitz that. Fitz was just trying to throw Scooter and DeadEye off, because Scooter is so confused, he really can’t remember, for sure, whether he told Pincus or not.

I noted that Fitz actually raises this with Libby, not only about Pincus, but several other reporters on a variety of topics.

He gets Libby to deny that he spoke with David Sanger about the NIE on July 2nd (in the presence of James Risen).

He also gets Libby to admit that he told Cooper and Kessler (before Novak’s expose but after the so-called Russert “release”).

Fitz also got Libby to finally concede that though he claimed that he didn’t talk to the WSJ about the NIE that he and Cheney told Wolfowitz to do so.

So it may be that Fitz has evidence about these cases that would build his case, but that he has decided to not use them because

a) they contain information about future cases that he wants to keep under wraps. He doesn’t want the witnesses to have to testify and reveal their testimony too early.

b) he’s retaining several other counts so that if there is a mistrial he can use this increased body of evidence to really nail the coffin shut.

c) he believes that he has more than sufficient testimony to make his case and simply doesn’t want to complicate the trial too much for the jurors. Seeing Wells on cross-examination this might not have been a bad strategy.

Or some combination of the above.

I don’t think it’s allowable to suggest to a witness that someone else has testified to contrary facts in order to get a GJ witness to agree to an erroneous fact or suggestion. But I’ll defer to the lawyers in this area.

Twisted Martini @ 104

Shez @
95

What is the distinguishable differerence hre between FOX and MTP?

Two steps in the process of news laundering…Fox reports a crazy accusation or statement from some wingnut like Insight Magazine, or LGF or Drudge. Rush and the screaming MeMe’s pick it up-sometimes it is the other way around. Now that it is “out there” Press the Meat and the NYT pick it up, and voila, clean as a whistle!

News laundering! Click! Never thought of it that way, but of course! And there’s lots of other things that can get laundered using this sort of mechanism…

I’ve been unsuccesfully trying to find a link to a great piece I read last Fall about this subject. What I recall is that the message/news/facts/propaganda (call it what you will) is developed and focus tested in the hallowed halls of the Heritage Foundation. It then goes out on radio (Limbaugh, Hannity, Ingraham, etc). Afterward polling takes place to determine the effectiveness of the message. A succesful polling may result in some message refinement before going on to Fox, etc.

I relate this from memory, which I doubt is as good as Scooties.

And while I have the soap box-

DING to Rep. Weiner: “The Republic Party”

Monsieur le Prof @
37

OT but funny:

Bush: ‘Every fallen soldier’s family will get a new SUV’

President Bush called on critics to tone down opposition to the Iraq conflict on Wednesday, as he announced his latest initiative to honor the troops who have fallen in Iraq by giving their families a brand new sport utility vehicle (SUV).

“In my new plan, every fallen soldier’s family will get a new SUV. I intend to give every military family who has sacrificed a loved one for freedom a brand new 2006 or 2007 SUV, paid for by the government,” the President announced while visiting a factory that produces Humvees for the war effort in Eurasia. “Some have said that this war isn’t worth fighting. They think the terrorists should win. My plan will show that America values those who made the ultimate sacrifice,” Bush continued.

He has been praticularly critical of the Catholic church.

Australian leader: Al-Qaida wants Obama

Excerpt: Australia – Australia’s conservative prime minister slammed Barack Obama on Sunday over his opposition to the Iraq war, a day after the first-term U.S. senator announced his intention to run for the White House in 2008….

…”I think that [Obama’s stated priority of getting out of Iraq] will just encourage those who want to completely destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory,” Howard said on Nine Network television.

“If I were running al-Qaida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama but also for the Democrats.”

Hey, Johnny? Shut up.