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(Great shot of an American Tree Sparrow waiting for the feeder to be refilled from Julie's Magic Light Show. I get this look from one of the male cardinals at least once a week: "Yo. Where are my sunflower chips?")
Here's the Sunday Talking Head line-up (partially courtesy of the Contra Costa Times). Guess what the primary topic is today?
• C-Span's Washington Journal: 7:45am - Ryan Lizza, New Republic, Senior Editor 9am - Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, Middle East Correspondent & Nile Gardiner, Heritage Foundation, Director of the Thatcher Ctr. for Freedom 9:30am - Lauren Landis, State Department, Senior Representative to Sudan
• "Meet the Press" Ch. 3 or 11, 8 a.m. Guests: Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.
• "This Week" Ch. 7, 8 a.m. Guests: Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; presidential counselor Dan Bartlett; former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson; Cal Ripken Jr., former Baltimore Orioles shortstop.
• "Face the Nation" Ch. 5, 8:30 a.m. Guests: Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; presidential counselor Dan Bartlett.
• "CNN Late Edition" Cable, 8 a.m. Guests: Sens. Kit Bond, R-Mo., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; the Rev. Al Sharpton, civil rights activist; David Ignatius: Washington Post; Michael Ware: CNN correspondent; Candy Crowley: CNN senior political correspondent; Jeff Greenfield: CNN senior analyst; Joe Johns: CNN correspondent.
• "Fox News Sunday" Ch. 2, 4 p.m. Guests: Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Joe Biden, D-Del.; Kevin Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
All those who think the subject of that inserted Senate-end-run Patriot Act provision will come up with Sen. Hatch on Meet the Press, raise your hands? *crickets* And yet, honestly, how could he not if he does any research -- any at all -- into this festering political mess? Especially with the righteous hiding of the Hatch hands in Patriot Act Senate end-run perversion. (Because, honestly, what are the odds that Russert will ask Hatch why so many of the folks involved in this mess worked in his office? And how is it that one Senator has so many fingers in such a naughty perversion of the rule of law pie?)
Quite the interesting mix on the Sunday shows this morning, and all of it says: no one is buying the Alberto Gonzales "Doh!" attempt at avoiding accountability. Hmmm, let's see...Sen. Pat Leahy vs. Sen. Orrin Hatch on NBC. Sen. Chuck Schumer vs. Sen. Arlen Specter on CBS. Or Sen. Dianne Feinstein vs. Sen. Kit Bond on CNN. This just may add up to some serious peevish teevee this morning.
So, what's catching your eye in the news or on the blogs this morning?
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Christy!
Good morning Christy!
That bird photograph is hilarious. But somehow I identify. Yo, where are our investigations?
And once again, no Lieberman to gum up the works.
What caught my eye is Salon’s analysis
of the Sampson grilling.
How could Sampson even think of putting
Fitzy on the second team when the Plame mess
was smouldering?
When asked by Schumer, Sampson was very coy…
He “could not remember” if he talked to Rove about the deal…
Hmmmmmmmmm
retirin’ in five @ 2
Any day without Lieberman is a good day.
Excellent piece in the WaPo this morning on the politicization of
US Attorney appoinments under Bush.
‘morning all!
this morning i listened to a lecture by mark crispen miller, from the cambridge forum.
at the end, during the q&a, he said something that resonated with me about our media environment…. which i think applies especially well to the sunday morning talk shows. here’s my rough transcript:
oh, and earlier in the talk, he said that right now, the closest thing we have to a free press is the blogosphere.
just thought i’d share…
W’s World: Somalia now in total war & crisis again.
On the other hand (and isn’t there always one at the Post?),
we have the latest ramblings from Broder (no link provided - you’ll have to dig for yourself through the compost heap that is the Op-Ed page):
– I went back to see if …Daily Kos had more on the Russian’s intelligence story Bush to strike Iran on April 5th. Well, it is there. And additional exposure set forth in the German press. Not a peep here. Of course.
allan_in_upstate @ 6
remember when economists started getting pissed about the bush campaign lying about their budgetary numbers (krugman during the 2000 campaign)… then it was the scientists … and now the prosecutors.
in every arena… it’s been a roll back of enlightenment values.
my cousins try to tell me that everyone is entitled to their own opinions. i’ll know i’ve gotten through when they realize that we’re not entitled to our own facts.
DELBERT MATHANEY @ 10
Any day, like today, that we wake up & W hasn’t bombed Iran is a good day.
Ann in AZ @ 5
Any day without Lieberman is a good day.
so long as we don’t bomb iran.
As long as it’s a slow Sunday, and we’ll be talking about the USAs dismissals, I wanted to get Christy’s take on that study done by the two Professors. I believe it was like 298 investigations or prosecutions of Dems, something like 67 Repugs, and 10 Inds. Obviously this is way out of balance, but without actual prior studies or proof, don’t you think that people will be easily convinced that the numbers are so skewed because Dems are so much more corrupt. The general public has not shown themselves to be so astute as to refute this, and you know the repugs are going to try to exploit the study in just that way.
So Hatch is going to play the ‘witch hunt’ card. Will Leahy defend himself?
Apropos of nothing in particular… post 9/11 I was an avid reader of the NYT, and paid retail ($1.00 per copy) every day for the following couple of years. When I was in Lyon, I paid 2 EUROS every day for the International Herald Tribune (a NYT entity).
Now, I take pains never to visit their website, particularly the effing “Select” section, even though a very fine blogger gave me a free pass. I suppose I miss a few things, but I am still so angry at Raines and Keller and the rest of the slimeball editorial crew that I just cannot bring myself to shell out any more of my meagre cash-stash for their fishwrap.
I miss Anthony Lewis - the guy could think and write rings around Richard Cohen, Freidman, or any of the rest.
now i’m listening to Gilbert Burnham’s (co-director, CRDR, Johns Hopkins and co-author of the lancet studies on iraqi death rates) lecture, “Counting the Dead in Iraq”, given in february at the MIT Technology and Culture Forum.
not a happy way to start the day.
LaFourmiRouge @ 16
I just send copies of their most egregious stories to public@nytimes.com, with the subject line reading: Proud yet?
MSM is going out of business thru slo-mo suicide.
Somebody called me?
I’ve been wondering for weeks why Tolman’s name never comes up with respect to Specter or Hatch in this USA’s story since he served as both of their staffer and his insertion of the text into the 2006 Patriot Act. Over this past weekend, I finally found some sources of excellent discussion that puts a name and face on this piece of the story.
Follow his career path and where he serves now and see if it doesn’t fit perfectly in your mind:
See here:
tpm link
deseretnews
andrewsullivan link
swampland link
swampland
C-SPAN talking about Brit hostages in Iran. Nothing intelligent yet. I sent an email saying I thought Iran ought to give the hostages a choice: continue to be held by Iran or turned over to U.S. to be held in Abu Ghraib. Somehow I don’t think my email will be read on camera.
I love that picture. *g* Couldn’t help myself and had to use it this morning. Julie has some really amazing shots, but I liked the little sparrow with attitude for today.
Pouring the rain down here, gang, and my perennials are drinking it in this morning. It’s going to be a great day to putter around the house and maybe get my lettuce planted.
egregious @ 19
I accused NYT of being you.
The money quote from the Wapo article. Think Meathead can read?
“Sampson sought to be a U.S. attorney, too, and he was the administration’s preferred choice last year to be chief prosecutor in his native Utah. But he was nudged aside for another GOP lawyer, Brett L. Tolman, who was favored by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). Tolman was counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee in late 2005 when, at Justice’s request, he had language inserted into USA Patriot Act legislation that allowed Gonzales to circumvent Senate confirmation by appointing interim U.S. attorneys indefinitely. Congress is in the process of repealing the provision.”
Since it’s April Fools’ Day….I assume that’s why Hatch, Bartlett, McConnell, Bond, etc. have been invited on the Sunday circuit.
Hey, pups - Saint McCain is holding a presser from the sunny streets of Iraq at 9:15 PDT. Anyone want to bet he’ll be touring the marketplace with his cameraman, unescorted by security?
Republicans thrive when people believe that both parties are equally “rotten to the core”. The years of total Republican control have demonstrated that they are in a class by themselves.
I keep waiting for Tolman to be subpoenaed. Why hasn’t this happened yet?
Come and meet a wonderful artist.
LaFourmiRouge @ 26
Kinda like landing on an aircraft carrier?
LaFourmiRouge @ 26
It’s so safe that he has to make an unannounced visit.
I’d like to see someone in the msm put all these Bushies stories together in one place. The Attorney Generals are just the latest example of Bush replacing more qualified and respected people with “loyal Bushies” in important jobs in all fields of Government. I’m not going to research it right now, but I remember there was a story not too long ago about how, for example, the person in charge of rebuilding hospitals in Iraq was replaced by a Bushie who had no qualifications and went on to screw it all up. Then there the FEMA Brownie stuff. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security, which is now the largest branch of Government, is full of traded favors and incompetence for the same reasons. These stories are all out there. They just need to be put together into some coherent form and explained to the American people in a way that they could see how expansive the damage is.
Then, there’s the massive outsourcing of everything to corporations - not just Halliburton - who are loyal to Bush because he’s got his hands in their pocket. This stuff goes to all departments. Guess who’s listening to your phone calls. Even that gets outsourced. But I guess that’s a separate story.
eCAHNomics @ 15
I thought the talking point was “show trial,” as in: We don’t want it to be a show horse trial, right brownie? Heckuva job!
Badwater @ 31
It’s so safe that he has to make an unannounced visit.
I’m guessing that his bobblehead routine could give Ban Ki Moon a run for his money… one can only hope…
These are my requirements for discussion on the purge of USA’s
-mention Karl Rove’s role
-mention the WaPo article
-mention gwb43.com
-mention Rove’s blackberry
-mention ‘the gap’
-mention the Patriot Act provision
Otherwise, it’s just a perfect ‘April Fools’ Day
The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a piece this morning that tries to preserve the myth that the US Attorneys were fired for good cause. Pretty pathetic case, actually. (I put the URL in the “Website” because it didn’t seem to come out right.)
msnbc
cnn
http://www.cnn.com/
I wish the last 6 years had been all April fools days.
Neil @ 33
I thought the talking point was “show trial,” as in: We don’t want it to be a show horse trial, right brownie? Heckuva job!
Is a Congressional hearing a trial? In this case, I would like it to be, but don’t think it is quite yet. Of course, it is a symbolic trial for the court of public opinion.
Here is a great quote from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer this morning:
“Reps. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., and Jay Inslee, D-Wash., were angered enough by the Justice Department’s firing of Seattle U.S. Attorney John McKay that they suggested he be given his job back. McKay’s response? Thanks, but no thanks.”
McKay teaches law now at Seattle University. Here is a great snippet of what he is focusing on in his Constitutional Law and Terrorism class:
“In class this week, the topic [of his firing] didn’t come up. Instead, McKay leaned against a table and peppered his students with questions about varying legal definitions of torture, posing a series of hypotheticals: If they represented a high-level terrorism suspect who had been subjected to harsh interrogation techniques such as “waterboarding,” how would they proceed? If they represented CIA agents who used the techniques, what defense would they offer? If they worked for the Justice Department and were directed to advise case agents how rough they could get with suspects, what would they say?”
Perhaps he is in a better place now.
Here is the link: seattlepi
Stephanopolous asked Bartlett why Iglesias was fired. Long talking point. Stephanopolous offers lots of facts including great perf. reviews, wasn’t added to the list until date, Rove reqested it.
Sen. Specter (R-PA) still wants Rove and Miers to testify with transcript (in private, no oath.)
Bartlett said “we think our offer isfair.”
Bwa haa. Supbeona time.
Rootless Cosmopolitan has the temerity to point out that pulling out of Iraq is not happening anytime soon.
This is going to be a real problem for democratic presidential candidates. Clinton may have been wise to get out ahead of this issue by admitting she plans a continued occupation.
Long story short, the Iraqi defense forces cannot defend the country. Iraq has no air force or armored divisions, nor any logistical capability. The current defense force is really just an internal security force. The country is surrounded by countries with formidable forces, Syria, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia all of whom have ethnic ties to groups different groups in Iraq. Syrian and Saudi Arabia to Sunnis, Iran to Shiites and Turkey to Kurds and Turkomen. The Saudis are clearly very distressed to have a new Shiite government on its border, the Turks are worried about the Kurds desire for a state, and Iran is sitting pretty at the moment with allies in power.
The US has built permanent bases in Iraq designed to hold about 50,000 troops. The US is doing nothing to create an armed force in Iraq that can defend itself against outsiders. The plan, all along, was for Iraq to serve as the base of operations for the US in the Mid-east. There is no sign that this plan has changed, as Clinton recently admitted.
Democratic candidates has have to think long and hard about what to do about Iraq. Right now, they can get away with saying that they favor withdrawal, but as the elections get nearer, they’re going to have to be clearer about what they mean by that.
Between Bush and a pliant media, there has never been a policy debate in this country about any aspect of the occupation. The plan for ending that occupation is not at all well-formed, nor is it clear which of the candidates do actually support ending the occupation.
[Open link closed by moderator]
ewww– Nile Gardiner– ewww.
morning all.
alright, I’ve clarified for myself the neo con strategy;
“if you say it, that makes it so”
Gonzales with his “there is nothing illegal about these wire taps” and “there is no constitutional protection against warrantless search”
with cheney’s “there is no doubt Saddam was in league with bin laden”
the list goes on, but here is their strategy;
“say it, say it as if it’s as true as water being wet, do not back down from your interpretation, even in the face of absolute proof, simply say that proof is subject to interpretation”
I was listening to tom harman (you should get him to guest blog here christy, now that he had you on your show)
anyway, I was listening to tom hartman and he had some moron from some institute with the NERVE to say “taxes are immoral”
IMMORAL !
this is what they do, they use words that invoke emotion to make believe their point is the only accurate point and any proof otherwise is just an interpretation
so they say things that can’t possibly be true but they say it as if everyone knows it and bing, their minions follow along
remenber cheney’s “they are in the last throws of insurgency”?
he continues to say he was absolutely correct by the way…now gonzales, in the face of the absolute facts continues to say there was nothing political about these firings…and continues to claim he is fighting for the truth
rediculous but he continues on and on
Glub. G’morning from MN, the land of one great honking lake. More rain. Everyone depressed and cranky. Oh, wait. We were depressed and cranky before it started raining. Bush Syndrome.
Speaking of whom . . . was anyone else totally embarrassed to see Junior shooting off his mouth at the egregious (morning, E) seizure of British sailors? I get that the U.S. should probably weigh in on this, but it is beyond the pale that the master of deception and flapdoodle be our spokesman. Ick.
Back to my cave.
Meat: the Puppet
starring Tim “Pumkinhead” Russert
with Orrin “Booby” Hatch
A criminal mastermind plots to take over the justice department with the help of several dozen Gary Burghof clones and a talking head. Their plot is foiled when a new chairman of the Senate judiciary committee is sworn in with subpoena power and the “Burghofs” turn on each other amidst much mayhem and gore.
The withdrawal timeframes stated in the house and senate authorzation bills, whether binding as in the house bill or non-binding as in the senate bill, is wholly unacceptable to the white house.
The WH talking point is why Congress wants to substitute its judgement for the generals’ judgements.
Is it not obvious to everyone in this country that generals are not in charge of increasing troop strength or deciding to redeploy? That authority is the deciderers and the Congress is telling him, you get 18 more months another 100 Billion?
Bush chimed in the Iran “hostages.” Way to escalate George. You couldn’t just let Blair deal with this himself, no, you had to chime in with your .02 cents.
This Week round table on now.
jayackroyd @ 43
I think the only way for Democrats to get ahead of the Iraq mess is to say that the situation is changing so rapidly that there is no way of knowing now what we are going to do in a year and half. And they could add that Bush says he has information that he won’t share with them so it’s impossible to make these kinds of decisions without knowing all the facts.
Connect the dots..
My money says, after reading two articles this morning - Digby’s about Our Messianic Emperor’s evangelical implants throughout his administration, and; The Wapo about the US Attorney’s who Bush appointed, and who “made the cut” from Pearl Harbor day last year -
..”Evangelical Faith” is the missing ingredient that Sampson, Goodling, Jennings, Meyers, et al “forgot” on what it took to stay off the hit list. To me, it is patently obvious.
No one.. NO ONE will open up this pandora’s box. “Did you use faith as a hiring/firing criteria?” “Did he go to the prayer breakfasts?” “Is he active in his church?”
Someone should do a study of how many USA’s appointed after the 2004 election graduated from an evangelical law school. Wapo talked around this obvious thread. Why?
MSM will not touch this with a ten foot pole.
Neil @ 49
Blair jumped on the PNAC world domination express. Now he wants off. Sorry Tony. This ride’s going all the way to the end.
My preferred D response is: W went into the china shop & broke all the dishes, and now they expect Ds to put them back together again?
So there’s a piece in the NYT Week in Review on the declining power and independence of US Attorneys.
“Last two decades”? How about “the last six years.” There are no examples given from the Clinton years or the Bush I years of this tighter leash.
Here you have a clear statement of central control of prosecutors as if it came down, unbidden, from the skies.
“In the past we felt more empowered to ignore them,” he said.
Rather than a story about the unprecedented degree of control and politicization of the US Attorneys under the Bush administration, the story treats it as though it were something in the water.
eCAHNomics @ 53
I like that too, but I’m not sure it works when you’re trying to woo people who voted for Bush in 2004.
Badwater @ 27
that both parties are rotten to the core does, in NO WAY, suggests that they are equally rotten.
for example, in miller’s talk, he describes a republican party undermining and corrupting our elections… and a democratic party that is unwilling to address this.
a dramatically different level of rotteness.
in my experience (i don’t claim to any special expertise… just lots of experience talking to republicans - i don’t believe people don’t change their views)… i do better if i’m willing to be completely honest about the faults of dems when i’m trying to get someone to face the real and much more significant problem with today’s republicans. and i’m committed to striving for intellectual honesty.
eCAHNomics @ 53
Put them back together again when many of the pieces have been hidden or discarded. Where are they? I can’t remember.
Wow. Can anyone think of when MtP had a lineup like that? I can’t recall a time. I’m with Christy: I want to see what Monsignor asks Hatch.
OT, re: Roots Project beta site
If you set up your account and start posting some of your own content to your own blog there, Matt Browner Hamlin and I will be looking daily for original material generated by the community to promote to the front page. You’ll also WIN FREE STUFF.
Well, maybe not, but anyway, it’s next generation Internets that we’re building, and you can be a a part of it. Check it out.
Please also make note of our new fundraising thermometer on the right sidebar of any FDL page. When I get an update from Jane on the latest contributions, I’ll update it.
My point here is
1) That’s not gonna be good enough for the entire campaign cycle.
2)This is a very serious problem that we have to face.
3)The Average Joe does not, I believe, understand that a rapid withdrawal is not possible, and that there is little possibility of the occupation ending in the next several years unless there is a significant policy change.
4) What to do to get out of Iraq has to be discussed. It’s not enough to come up with talking points.
5) I want to know what the Democratic candidates are really planning to do. Clinton’s copped to the 50,000 soldier indefinite occupation. If Obama or Edwards have different ideas, they should spell them out.
From the list of talking heads it seems as if Bartlett is playing defense for the Bushies. They are too chicken to send Rove out on the circuit. Think they have something to hide?!
I don’t have TV so depend on you fine folks to tell me how bad Hatch is whining.
The NYT’s Editorial really hammered Rove, The Rovian Era, this morning.It is ALL Rove!
eCAHNomics @ 53
that doesn’t address how to get the Ds to concieve of and commit to a plan that ends our occupation of iraq.
after all… our staying in iraq does nothing to create an iraqi civil defense.
angie @ 44
I tried to get through to C-SPAN and ask is this there idea of balance. A neo-can war monger from a republican front organization that has been at Iran’s throat for 25 years and a LA Times reporter? Punkinhead couldn’t hae done a better job.
barbara @ 57
They’ve gone to the great WMD place in the sky.
georgesimian at 50:
Unfortunately, this is not true. The situation is not changing much at all. Ethnic cleansing continues. Iraq is in a very violent stasis.
CNN-suicide vest found inside Green zone. My army major efriend tells me Green Zone “security” is very penetrable. So keep alert for more news of that sort, possibly worse.
jayackroyd @ 59
Why isn’t a rapid pullout impossible? Why is a slow pullout any better? Why should the candidates come up with a concrete plan when the President isn’t? It’s fine for them to say one thing or another, but it will be almost two years before any of them get into office, and so much can change between then and now. They should at least wait until closer to the November election to see what’s going on in Iraq before committing to a plan now.
Reading a book that last night referenced the Hundred Years War, which made me literally quake. What name will history place on George’s War when it ends and if there is a world left to comment upon it when that happens. I am in such a terribly doomsday mode. Lifeline, anyone?
Yup, because if people believe that both are equally bad, they figure “Why bother voting?” — and since the GOP typically has a higher percentage of hardcores who vote, guess who wins?
This is also why the Republicans do everything in their power to a) keep poor and non-white people from being able to vote, and/or b) keep their votes from being counted: Because the Republicans do best when the least amount of folk vote, and those people vote Democratic tickets anyway. The preferred method for suppressing their votes, as the US Attorney purge scandal has made abundantly clear, is to lodge fake “voter fraud” charges against local and state Democratic Party orgs.
CNN in background: god has almost an many hits on the Internet as sex.
Jokes write temselves.
barbara @ 67
armegeddon.
lina @ 70
armegeddon.
The Rapture.
A rapid withdrawal would be very very difficult. First you’ve gotta get the 100,000 contractors out, which is tricky because a number of them are working security. Then what?
I know this brings to mind Mayor Daley telling Johnson to just put them onto planes and fly them out, but what do you envision?
The simplest plan would be to not rotate people in as people are rotated out, taking a proportionate number of contractors out that same time. Then gauge the size of the resulting conflagrations in the now American-free areas.
You guys are working hard to cheer barbara up here.
My view: we have survived terrible leaders and terrible conditions in the past, and with a lot of hard work and involved citizens we will survive again.
Let’s keep going.
Apparently the military mom who embarrassed Obey on tape was given a police escort from Pelosi’s office after waiting 8 hours to see Grandma about funding more war.
This and more here (as in have you heard any mention of “Republican” on Rush, Little Green Footballs, Drudge, etc. since November? Nope, gone. Now the word is “conservative.” Teh taint of the Brand.)
Morning Christy. Morning All.
Cute little Tree Sparrow. We luvs those lil guys. Usually get a bunch in dead of winter, and only saw one this winter!
Sayyyy. Didn’t see it mentioned.
C-Span 1 has a replay Sen. Judiciary grilling of Sampson this morning starting at 10:35a EST, if anyone wants to tape or dance to it. ;->
Abu’s TOP aide for 2 yrs? Really??? NAWWWW! GWANNN!
“I know nohthing, 122Xnohthing, um, honest?”
Fox News Sunday up in Boston Fox Ch 25. What? No Juan Williams on the panel today?
barbara– no lifeline here, but here’s a (((hug))) and it is spring and we do have Big Hank and Leahy and others…
klyde– good question, wish you could have gotten through! Nile Gardiner is one of the most repellant baby-faced Brits that I have ever encountered.
From his Heritage Foundation bio:
He needs to be tossed to the curb. A dangerous fellow indeed.
jayackroyd @ 59
Granted, TV and primt media do craptastic job of covering candidates’ stances, as opposed their hairstyles. But you could always go to the candidates’ websites, you know. They have these little tabs marked “issues” that you can click on.
Here’s the very first paragraph on the issues page for John Edwards’ site:
And here’s Barack Obama on Iraq:
There you go.
Neil @ 76
The CBC demanded Juan Williams be removed as a condition of letting Faaux hold the debate.
Getting a late start and haven’t had a chance to check all the comments yet, but wanted to remind about something Timmeh said earlier this week on “Today.” He reported he spent the whole previous day looking for a Repub to come on MtP to defend AG, and he finally found Hatch.
I found that kind of annoying, and marvelled that he didn’t bother to call Sampson’s BFF first, but then it hit me another way: think of all the other Rs would might be there, but aren’t.
Hmmmm….
Ah yes, the expert who’s be wrong about everything. All the more reason to give him a platform.
Potatohead leads with Gonzalez. Video of Gonzalez testifying. Video of Sampson testifying. Ouch. Leahy and Hatch discuss.
egregious @ 73
(sign of a micro-second smile) You know, for most of my life, I have been incurably optimistic. Not Pollyanna, but generally hopeful. And definitely not morose. So it has taken a crushing load to compromise that. And I suspect I’m not the only one.
There is always hope. I do believe that at some primal level. Crikey, otherwise we might as well drink the damn Kool-Aid (I wonder why they haven’t used this in their product marketing . . .) and be done with it.
The FDL community underscores hope. There are others brooding about the same things I am, and many of you are actually DOING something about it. That’s why I have gotten into the habit of stopping here first thing in the morning (well, sometimes second thing).
I continue to believe at some level that it’s time for the peasants to storm the Bastille. That said, I’m not certain what that looks like. And it’s the twisting slowly in the wind that is so freaking hard.
jayackroyd @ 72
That sounds like a plan. If it were me, with my totally incomplete knowledge of warfare and local politics, I would pull nearly all the soldiers out, leaving a strong, but smaller force to protect the borders. The contracters would have to fend for themselves, by which I mean, get out if they think they should. I don’t know what most of them are doing there now anyway except taking work away from Iraqis. And it’s not like they’re exactly safe now. Also, aren’t most of the contractors over there supporting the troops, doing things like feeding them?
But I would also add, that then it would be possible to reassess the situation without our troops being part of the problem. There is an assumption that there will be civil war, but that’s an assumption that may not happen.
But I may change my mind in two years!
jayackroyd @ 72 -
logistics is something our army is proud to be experts at. someone’s got to tell them to plan a withdrawal - and see what they come up with.
in the mean time coordinate on the diplomatic arena.
just ‘cuz we don’t know how to design a withdrawal plan (i couldn design an invasion plan either), doesn’t mean we get to ignore the people who do know. take advantage of their expertise.
the problem is that if bush is in charge of the withdrawal - you know it will suck. maybe that is a good enough reason to wait for the 2008 election - although i don’t think so, ‘cuz bush’s occupation sucks too.
eCAHNomics @ 79. CBC? For real or joke?
When talking about Iraq,why is it no one mentions(or rarely does)the gigantic embassy we’re building there? It’s not like it’s a little storefront dealie or even a single building compound,it’s the size of Vatican City.
There is no intention of us leaving there. Ever. Unless there’s a serious change in our country’s leadership. Who built this thing? How much is it costing US taxpayers? What is it’s REAL purpose? I can’t even find it on satellite pictures of the region anymore.
Did someone say Talking Herds?
-GSD
Thanks PW–and that little bit of snark there about clicking on the tabs made me laugh.
all combat troops from Iraq within 12-18 months
So what about “non-combat” troops? Is the US going to leave armor and air behind, with trainers and advisers? How many of them will there be?
The plan allows for a limited number of U.S. troops to remain in Iraq as basic force protection, to engage in counter-terrorism and to continue the training of Iraqi security forces.
This is incoherent. Force protection is only needed if there is a force to protect. Counter-terrorism can mean anything. And we’re on a permnanent training mission?
In short, I think they are committed to the same 50,000 troop permanent force that was the plan from the outset. They just aren’t saying it as clearly.
Puesto @
51
Article VI of the Constitution (my emphasis):