Scarecrow @ 61:

Perhaps at first, but unlike Bush, he actually learned from the mistakes of his delusions. He didn’t pay any price, bear any burden in Cuba; he left the invaders on the beach and later agreed with Nikita not to intervene again if they removed the missiles. I probably understand Bush too, but that doesn’t mean I agree with him.

I get weak in the knees every time I think about what might have happened if we had had leaders of the likes of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al in the White House in October, 1962. That was the scariest week of my life. A college classmate who was a newly minted Naval officer aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima, with its battalion of Marines, told me a few months later that he realized it was the real thing when, as they transited the Panama Canal following an orders change that recdirected them from Hawaii to the Caribbean, they took on dozens of pallets of whole blood.

I know I’m way too late for this conversation, but I personally know an officer who was on the U.S. ship that had to decide whether to shoot the Soviets or not as they crossed the line. Pretty much everybody thought WWIII would be the result.

World wars do start for some reason. Hope it’s not our stupidity in Iran.

‘And, as Julian E. Barnes writes in this morning’s Los Angeles Times: “A key Republican House leader said Sunday that if President Bush’s current strategy in Iraq is not working by fall, members of Congress will demand to know what the White House’s next plan is.

‘”Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House minority leader, said the troop buildup had shown some success and noted that it was not yet complete. But he embraced the idea of setting benchmarks for the Iraqi government and requiring Bush to assess the Iraqis’ progress on a monthly basis.

“‘Over the course of the next three months or four months, we’ll have some idea how well the plan is working,’ Boehner told Chris Wallace on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ ‘Early signs are indicating there is clearly some success on a number of fronts. But . . . by the time we get to September, October, members are going to want to know how well this is working, and if it isn’t, what’s Plan B?’”

This was discussed yesterday after the talk shows, but this doubletalk is somehow getting accepted by some as a real position. Oh boy, if nothing is happening by September, we Republicans are going to what to know, ‘What is the next plan?’

Man, oh man.

…from the House Committee on the Judiciary schedule:

Thursday, May 10 – “Oversight Hearing on the United States Department of Justice” …who’s testifying here? currently no info on the website

I thought it was Abu Gonzales up for round two.

thank you! that’s what i was hoping!

Thank you,
-S

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/ar….._gonzales/

Thursday, May 10 – “Oversight Hearing on the United States Department of Justice” …who’s testifying here? currently no info on the website

I thought it was Abu Gonzales up for round two.

Tenet made >$200,000/year as Director of Central Intelligence. Thanks to Bush and Tenet’s wholesale privatization of most government functions, including intelligence, Mr. Tenet made several million last year alone, working for govt contractors. To be reimbursed by the US govt, of course, plus profits.

It seems the only profitable business George Bush has contributed to are those who suckle on the teat of his govt outsourcing.

To hide that mentality, Mr. Bush keeps shifting goals. Not goals, really, slogans; he has lots: sectarian violence, victory, fighting terrorism, fighting ‘em there so they won’t come over here.

Richard Clarke lit into that last one. Violent criminals are not puppy dogs who might follow us home when we leave Iraq. They can come over here any time they want. Mr. Bush spends so much fighting in Iraq and paying Blackwater Group’s mercenaries to guard our ambassador, he hasn’t any left to really improve security here.

As for not setting timetables for Mr. Bush’s failure, I mean for leaving Iraq, I think it was Bill Maher who reminded us that trucking out 150,000 personnel – ignoring another 100,000 mercenaries and contractors – is kinda noisy, so nobody will be surprised when we go.

S[snip]

A college classmate who was a newly minted Naval officer aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima, with its battalion of Marines, told me a few months later that he realized it was the real thing when, as they transited the Panama Canal following an orders change that recdirected them from Hawaii to the Caribbean, they took on dozens of pallets of whole blood.

that is a sobering image, makes it real.