Q: But, Tony, by its definition, a surge is supposed to be relatively short-term, right, not on and on and on? If you just have like a mini report card and September and say, we need another six months, maybe another six months, it’s no longer a surge, right?

MR. SNOW: Well, if you take a look at what Baker-Hamilton had talked — a surge is not sort of in and out. What you do is you bring forces to bear and you try to finish the job.

Q But then doesn’t it become an escalation, as the Democrats said at the beginning of the surge? They said, if you don’t put in —

MR. SNOW: Oh, my goodness.

Q Why are you rolling your eyes? Hold on a second. At the beginning, a surge — the idea was a temporary increase to stabilize things. Now you’re talking about —

MR. SNOW: No, Ed, what you’re saying is — what we’re talking about is, yes, it will be a temporary increase, but on the other hand, when we get to September, those forces will have been — all those forces together will have been in theater less than three months. So you need to —

Q Some of them have been there since February —

MR. SNOW: Yes, but the point is —

Q — after the President announced in January.

MR. SNOW: Yes, and it —

Q So not three months. Some of them have actually been there.

MR. SNOW: Yes, but I — I know. But I’m saying, you talk about the surge. The surge is not an overnight thing. As you just pointed out, it takes more than four months to get forces in theater. It takes another couple of months to get them fully integrated in theater. And therefore, what we’re saying is, now that you’ve got all the forces in place, really by — some of these, the forces will not be fully integrated until July or August. So what you’re going to get is a preliminary look where you are going to be able to have some metrics about how it works when you’ve got all the pieces in place.

That’s a pantload.

Everyone is still downstairs. That’s here right?

That would be here :)

Christy Hardin Smith @ 150

kathleen at 143 — Not in the parlance of the federal legal system he doesn’t. Violent offenders are the ones that pose a direct, immediate threat to public safety because they have committed a murder, wounded someone, been caught in possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, etc. — immediate and direct danger to the public. Libby’s conduct does not fall within that criteria under the sentencing guidelines for federal sentencing purposes. The Judge has to follow the law — not just go with his gut.

While Libby did not get caught with a gun or a knife in his hands. The ‘alleged” damage done to Valerie Plame and her job and the damage done to National Security by her outing seems like it would qualify as ” immediate and direct danger to the public”

Direct for sure

Another aspect of the failed surge: Think Progress is reporting that 18,000 members of the Iraqi security forces have been lost to injury or death, and possibly another 13,000 to desertion. There isn’t enough standing up going on in order for us to ever stand down.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/…..18-months/

This is just insane. Bush is completely and openly out of control and on the hunt for new military commanders just as nuts as he. I wonder just how much worse this has to get before republican legislators jump ship with their votes instead of just their words?

Republicans will never jump ship. After Watergate and Iran-Contra they learned that they must always support their own, no matter what. Loyalty to the Party before loyalty to the country. Several Republicans may make noises but when push comes to shove they will always support the Party. In that they have more akin to the NSDAP or the Soviet Communist Party.

kathleen at 143 — Not in the parlance of the federal legal system he doesn’t. Violent offenders are the ones that pose a direct, immediate threat to public safety because they have committed a murder, wounded someone, been caught in possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, etc. — immediate and direct danger to the public. Libby’s conduct does not fall within that criteria under the sentencing guidelines for federal sentencing purposes. The Judge has to follow the law — not just go with his gut.

While Libby did not get caught with a gun or a knife in his hands. The ‘alleged” damage done to Valerie Plame and her job and the damage done to National Security by her outing seems like it would qualify as ” immediate and direct danger to the public”

Kathleen @ 152:

I was Norman Finkelstein’s editor at the University of Minnesota Press in the early 1990s, his book on Israel and Palestine.

Alan Dershowitz did him on at DePaul. Big outside campaign against him.