Login Here
The leading GOP candidate for president, John McCain, is running on a "less jobs, more war" platform. Which is just a continuation of the Bush/Cheney record, given the dropping workforce numbers, the rising economic shitpile, and the violence in Iraq yet again today, just for starters. But hey, things are just rosy here in the US of A, right? Feeling safer, yet? Me neither:
The U.S. military is not prepared to meet catastrophic threats at home, and it is suffering from an "appalling gap" in forces able to respond to chemical, biological and nuclear strikes on U.S. soil, according to a congressional commission report released yesterday.
The situation is rooted in severe readiness problems in National Guard and reserve forces, which would otherwise be well-suited to respond to domestic crises but lack sufficient personnel and training, as well as $48 billion in equipment because of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves.
Guard readiness has continued to slide since last March, when the panel found that 88 percent of Army National Guard units were rated "not ready," said retired Marine Maj. Gen. Arnold L. Punaro, the commission chairman....
Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 600,000 reservists have served in Iraq, Afghanistan or other countries as part of the anti-terrorism campaign, and the use of reservists has risen more than fivefold, according to the report. Without a strong reserve force, the nation would be more likely to have to resort to a draft, which would be unfeasible both politically and militarily, Punaro said.
Here's hoping for no floods, fires, tornadoes, catastrophic events of any kind, major attacks, accidents, explosions, chemical spills, biological weapons attacks, mass flu epidemics...well, you get the picture. Putting the Republicans in charge of anything requiring more thought, consideration or concern than running a snow cone machine is a recipe for disaster.
Heckuva job, Bushie. The nation and our nation's military deserves a helluva lot better than this neglectful idiocy. And what we do not need is another 100 years war, Sen. McCain. Of course, the concept of drowning the entire nation in a sea of incompetence may explain McCain's new appealling gleam for the odious Grover Norquist and pals. To wit:
“He has moved in the right direction strongly and forcefully on taxes,” said Grover Norquist, an antitax organizer who had been the informal leader of conservatives against a McCain nomination, adding that he had been talking to Mr. McCain’s “tax guys” for more than a year....
“Romney and Huckabee divided the Bush vote,” Mr. Norquist, the tax opponent, said. “Bush was Romney and Huckabee in one body.”
Cuddle up, kids, looks like Mr. Norquist has found his new publicly touted whatever his private thoughts comfort object. Sincerity is so overrated, especially when a well-placed lie will get you more fundraising leverage to fill your own coffers, eh, Grover? Blergh.
(Personally, I think that Norquist quote about Bush, Huckabee and Romney ought to be stuck up on a billboard outside his office in DC. Dance with them that brought ya, Grover...especially the ones who have been laundering money through your coffers. Just sayin'...)
Share This 
Spotlight
Zed?
This is our United STates of AT&T…good grief.
hi Christy
BTW anybody catch the SOTU (*g*). My sum up:
Aren’t I wonderful? Catch!
Hi all. In contrast to the smarm of the post, I thought the picture was adorable — the expression on his face says a lot about someone missing his kids back home while he’s working in a crisis. I’ve seen that look on Mr. ReddHedd’s face while playing with The Peanut any number of times. Made me smile a little, anyway, and I thought y’all might enjoy it as well…
bushco has bankrupted the country for years…… i believe on purpose and to enrich his neocon buddies…. and i see no difference in mccain…..
Top of the afternoon to you, Christy…
that’s a katrina pic, correct? I did like it. ;
I don’t know if I would rescue Grover from anything. His attitude gets others injured or dead.
This pretty well demonstrates what a disaster the GOP campaign for President has become. In the fourth quarter of 2007 Ron Paul raised more money than McCain and Romney combined!
Now, if we can just stop from tearing one another to shreds, the future looks very promising.
when it comes to regaining the tax revenue the democrats MUST frame this correctly
we are NOT going to be “raising taxes”
we are going to be re claiming the middle class assets that were stolen from the middle class, we will get retreiving those assets from the pockets and bank accounts the president and republicans deposited them and they will be used to rebuild the infrastructure, health and economy of the middle class just as they were used to neglect those same areas of concern”
THAT is the way we need to frame regaining the tax revenue that has been taken from our infrastructure and middle class
I don’t see a whole lot of difference between them either. Same song, different cronies…or some awfully similar ones, if the wingnut K Street brigades that have clearly come courting on Grover’s coattails are any example. Straight talk express, my ass…
IOKIYAR
They got away with NoLa, so what’s the problem?
It is a beautiful photo!
If Hill doesn’t roar ahead of Obama she will probably be losing steam and it may be better for her to drop out if Obama’s momemtum keeps buidling.
What’s with Taylor Marsh? She sounds nasty and nuts about Hillary and her distaste of Barack. Very weird for someone who seems capable of analysis. She is blind to her own craziness.
No one could possibly predict that any of these things could ever happen.
lets see IF they do as you suggest…. tho i doubt that.
I happen to like Taylor. Don’t always agree with her, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make it personal about her — she’s a friend.
Yes, and heaven forbid we do some real logistical planning for their eventuality either.
Great post Christy… it has been dugg!!
More on our shit head Democrats From Senator Wienerstein this am in response to a letter I sent to her about Impeachment
Thank you for your letter concerning impeachment proceedings against Vice President Richard Cheney. I appreciate the time you took to write and welcome the opportunity to respond.
In our most recent elections, the American people expressed clear disapproval with the path this country was on. They are tired of partisan politics and of an Administration that pays little heed to the wishes of the American people. They want-and deserve-a Congress that holds the Administration accountable and fulfills its Constitutional responsibility to check and balance the Executive branch. I share this sentiment and am determined to work hard and across party lines in the United States Senate to promote issues that are of real concern to most Americans, including the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, homeland security, global warming, and lobbying and election reform.
At this time, however, I believe that impeachment proceedings against President Bush or Vice President Cheney will only divide the country even further, frustrating our hopes for a meaningful change in direction, while having little chance of success.
I have been deeply disappointed by many of this Administration’s actions and have been outspoken in those instances. Nevertheless, given the challenges our country faces I believe that we need to focus on constructive and cooperative steps that would lead us in the right direction.
Again, thank you for your letter. If you have any further questions or comments, please contact my office in Washington, D.C. at (202) 224-3841. Best regards.
Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
You just gotta hate these people….. I will work to get her replaced next cycle for any good Democrat to take her seat in the Senate she has betrayed both the people and her oath to uphold the constitution!!
Apackalies Now!
it was definitely on purpose, the very object of his presidency was to give run government as a business, to take profit from assets, to make sure the top benefit and the bottom served
they want a robber baron economy, they don’t want the middle class because the middle class is educated, they don’t even want middle class education at all, they want private schools and nothing else
and the purpose is NOT so the wealthy have more money, they already have more then they can possibly spend
the purpose is so the middle class has less, they want robber baron economics, they want the wealthy and everyone else, they want nothing in the middle, they do NOT want the lower allowed to become the upper
it is the very purpose of these fscists who have overun the republican party
Not personal… and I like Taylor too, but she seems to be totally non objective here. It comes as a surprise. And a sharp contrast to the Lake.
Those tax cuts are sure working. Exxon Mobil Corp. posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company _ $40.6 billion. WIihout those tax cuts, how could we afford to pay so that Exxon Mobil can set records like this? Grover must smile every time he pumps $3 per gallon gas.
Feb 2001 Oil was $24 / barrel.
Feb 2008 Oil is $89 / barrel.
Yet, it’s believable that Bush and the Republics will escape without blame because of feckless Democratic leadership
She’ll be there until 2012 but she needs to retire to spend more time with her money.
Some may be shooting for this consciously and other simply follow along because the policies result in that sort of 2 class society… the new feudalism.
It was class warfare for the last 7 years and they WON.
Actually, I don’t really hate Feinstein — I just look at her as the target of a long-term educational project, which may include, but not be limited to, primaries and defeats.
Um, seems like there was something about that in the Bible. So shouldn’t the religious caste has some nodding acquiantance with natural disasters?
Unlike, say, your?
Jeez if the oil biz is so profitable, you would think they could cut down the price at the pump and still make a sh*tload.
Good line.
I see my craziness, but I don’t publish a blog!
ahhh christy - too true i’m afraid….. :o(
That look is the very reason why the National Guard should be from your own state unless during a huge disaster. It is neighbors helping neighbors.
Excellent photo, Christy … wouldn’t it be nice if the CinC would uplift the downtrodden and the young in this manner …
I hope she does retire and we raise taxes to help with all the things in this country that she has helped to screw up.. Maybe impeachment for her also for failing in her oath to uphold the constitution… I am sick and tired of these greedy people… We need progressive Democrats not these corporate puppets..
Don’t forget that the rich don’t need the govt. They have private security & firefighting services.
I think different folks have had different reactions to the various candidates this time around. Happens every presidential cycle. Sometimes, a candidate grabs you at the gut or heart level — we see that with various commenters who love one and hate the other alla time (the “my candidate is Jesus and yours is Satan” syndrome, as I like to call it). We made a decision early on to try and report as opposed to take a single side, because what we are interested in most is pushing a progressive agenda, and if you take the side of a single candidate, it necessarily becomes about that candidate instead of the issues on so many levels.
But that’s us. And mainly because our Blue America work was so effective in the last election cycle, and frankly we can only stretch ourselves so thin. A fully-geared-up Presidential campaign on top of House and Senate races on top of news and issue advocacy and…well, really, it would have been way too much. So we’ve tried to stick to issues and constructive criticism where we think we can put ourselves to our best use. And I think that, frankly, has worked out rather well. (At least, I like to think so, anyway…)
OK you are I was taught better than that but boy she sure does piss me off. I wish she would remember her days in SF city Hall… the real reason she was elected was because she was there for that awful Twinkie eating Kevin White who shot and killed the mayor of the time!
I’m not a Constitutional scholar but my understanding is that once a member is seated in the US House or Senate, they are there until they resign, are defeated in the next election or are expelled for crimes after having been convicted.
I.E., no impeachment or recall.
If Hillary does win the nomination, she will have to craft a more effective response than she gave last night, about her vote for the war.
Well, let’s sum up the Bush presidency:
TWO stolen elections
TWO wars lost
TWO recessions
ONE major american city destroyed
I guess we can all tell where Bush is going to work his “magic” in the coming year.
In 2000, candidate Bush said that as President he’d “jawbone” oil-producing nations to drop rates. If he’s been doing that, he should stop because he must be asking them to raise prices by mistake.
Of course, Bush can say things without consequence thanks to the lapdog MSM.
Not necessarily so. Don’t forget, the R nominee will most likely either be Double Gitmo Willard or One Hundred Years War St McCain.
Her vote can be finessed against those messages, I believe.
Obviously YMMV
If you think nerves are raw now, wait ’til after Super Tuesday … it’s going to be a slugfest until the Convention …
Agreed and I like the Lake approach, but you do call BS when anyone issues forth BS.
It just becomes hard to then support the dem candidate when you are in such a position as Taylor seems to be with Obama.
I don’t have a prob with strong advocacy but I do have one when all the negative stuff about other candidate and in HER party is brought forth.
There are no angels running and they all have their bad stuff and all had some good stuff and some more than others.
People who were pulling FOR a candidate who dropped out can more easily get behind on who is still in… if they haven’t spent months trashing that candidate.
Oh well…
Either of those two will try to portray her as a Flip Flopper … last night, she did as well as John Kerry in reversing those criticisms …
Oh lordy, don’t remind me. More than once, I’ve contemplated just hibernating until it’s over. The sniping is truly getting on my last nerve…
True but the Senate can remove them for convictions of criminal behavior. the senate would have to hold hearing and such if I remember correctly. I believe it has been done in the House.
According to Yahoo it was McCain that got MoveOn endorsement.
Link at:
It will probably be corrected by the time anyone gets there, but I kept a screen shot. Unfortunately I don’t know how to insert it here.
Bush tried the jawbone without teeth a few weeks ago and the Saudis said STFU.
-G
Norquist needs to take a bath.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080201/ap_on_go_co/nfl_congress;_ylt=AnqMCZZ8MdSESW0xGfLruPmyFz4D
Yeah, Romney portraying someone else as a flip-flopper, that’ll work. /s
And McCain has a few flip-flops of his own in the closet
You are all doing an amazing job … walking the fine line between free speech and personal criticism. The Mods ought to put a note after each comment that crosses the line and start pulling people up … let’s keep the conversation at FDL above the grade …
Well isn’t this just the whole point that the Republicans have been making…that Government is broken and that Private Industry is so much better suited to doingf these jobs?
“There’s no need to fear,
UNDERDOGBLACKWATER is here!”And while some naysayers might think that there’s no taxpayer-based revenue to pay off Blackwater, Bush would simply have to allow them “salvage rights” to anything that they recover during their operations to pay for their help…y’know… “legal looting”.
It was Dan White who did the shootings and used the twinkie defense.
Because the Senate gives power based on seniority, CA is better off with Feinstein.
They would have to hold hearings in either house.
The last one expelled from the House was I believe James Traficant of Ohio after he was convicted in ‘01 or ‘02
Worked for the Visigoths…
I crafted one for her on the first thread and she is welcome to use all of it or any part;
Could that be NYC? If so, not even close. That kind of exaggertion does not enhance your case.
In the bathtub that W shrunk the govt to fit into?
You can be sure that Frank Luntz is hard at work to control the message, I just hope Hillary is better prepared next time around … Obama has his Uppercut at the ready …
Sorry, you mean NoLa.
Perris needs to work for one of these candidates. He’s good.
I think that was a NOLA reference…
they were probably alluding to new orleans
;)
I’m just sayin’.
Bill Belichek for Attorney General.
-G
Yesterday, Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights gave its annual report to the press on C-SPAN. It is enough to make us hand our heads in shame. He describes debasement of democracy by the Bush Administration in which every little petty dictatorship calls his government a democracy or emerging democracy.
In summary, the Bush/Cheney bastardizing of democracy has trivialized the meaning of democracy which has human rights at its core. It was a powerful substantive presentation. It was a shock to hear a truthteller in a world of political lies and deception.
Kenneth Roth is what I call a straight talker.
So my memory didn’t fail me to bad except for the Kevin White which should have been Dan White… Oh well the price of getting older. but then I am still getting older any thing else would be unacceptable to em .. dam just not as sharp as I once was… :>)
NoLa vs. NYC. Yes, caught myself as soon as I hit the submit button. Being from NYC makes one have a certain perspective.
What’s wrong with this message Perris is, people within the Democratic party and their supporters don’t buy the “Bush gave me manufactured evidence” meme because they remember the sizeable amount of evidence that was being spread with great fervor by the Canadians, French, Germans, Hans Blix, etc.
She said as much last night and it did not go over well, IIRC …
Maybe it’s the one he shrunk the Republic Party to fit into.
Uh, that link you have is to the Snarlin’ Arlen story asking why the NFL destroyed the tapes confiscated from the Patriots.
Priorities ya know?
Woo Hoo … Belichik for Joint Chief of Staffs … we might actually win a war … *g*
Kevin White was the mayor of the shitty of Bohshton.
-G
OT:
Will the FCC force Fox to change their slogan of Fair and Balanced now that Rove will be on board?
Now that would be small. The one the govt shrunk to would be Pacific Ocean size.
Kevin White was the former mayor of Boston.
If I were planning a coup …
Comic Steve Sweeney used to do an impression of Mayor Kevin White:
“I am the shitty of Bohshton. My ahsshole is the Callahan Tunnel and my dinky is the Bunker Hill Monument. I am the shitty of Bohshton.”
-G
Hey now I grew up there and he seemed like a good Mayor at the time…
OT:
Arlen Specter needs to STFU and stop grand standing. Now we have a roids investigation and they want to investigate the Pats for breaking NFL rules (by video taping signals out in the open, and they were caught in the 2nd quarter of the first game).
God, if only they would grandstand on anything that matters to the poverty, death, and distruction in the world.
There are 5.8 million Chineese stuck in the snow on the road right now dying. There are CIA torture tapes being destoryed. There are signing statements that say Congress does not matter.
WTF do we pay these people for, to troll for votes in Philly around Superbowl time?
Not as long as Republics are in charge.
In the general election, should Hillary be our candidate, I do not think her initial war vote is going to be a problem.
It appears McCain will be the opponent. He can’t attack her vote. He did the same thing. Of course, he could try to make a flip/flop argument, but given about 2/3rds of the electorate has made the same flip/flop, how effective would that be? She will argue that like the American people she came to her senses and he still hasn’t.
It is a very good issue for Obama during this primary season and I expect he will continue to press it.
no one ever bought that “fair and balanced” bullshit from faux news lol
That has nothing to do with quality of the actual city, just a bastardization of the Brahmin Boston accent. So the word city comes across as shitty.
-G
There was a boy who was kidnapped here in the bay area named Kevin White who unfortunately came to an early demise after being held for years…
OT
I’m going to a Charlie Rangel lunch on Monday at the NY Assn of Business Economists. Will probably be about 50 people there, so plenty of opportunity to ask Qs. Anyone have a pressing matter they want me to ask about?
Oh boy any time a I need a refresher on that accent I just call my brother :>)
I remember people saying years ago (before Bushco), that the Neocons would ship all of our national defenders (National Guard and Reserve) overseas and replace them with the Blackwater types here…and sure enough, they have and they are. Chilling.
“the rising economic shitpile,”
How did Warren Buffet describe the whole Subprime
CDO fiasco, a few years ago, ‘before’ it blew up
in our faces,
“A weapon of mass financial destruction.”.
We don’t need a natural disaster, or an Islamonazifascistradicalextremistterrorist attack,
we have a man-made one bearing down on us already,
one bearing the signatures of Greenspan, the Clinton
and the Bush administration.
Wheeeee-whoooo! Ride’em cowboy!
(Insert image of Greenspan a-la Slim Pickin’s here)
I haven’t read the comments yet, but I am so upset by this war in Iraq and the locking down of America that I have quit identifying myself as right or left, at this point I find it all to be meaningless. I have been calling senators, and republicans specifically, and asking that they forget, as I have, their party affiliation and address these issues as human beings, you cannot understand the force of my emotion in my words but it is there like a raging storm, despair, anger, along with, believe it or not, great hope, and if we are to survive as a nation there has to be a huge shift in our thinking about just who the hell we think we are. You can elect all the progressives you want, forgive me for saying this, but they aren’t going to do jack shit unless we change the rules of the game which is no game at this point because the deck is stacked. They will be effective only when we stand up and refuse to cooperate and we don’t have a lot of time.
My rant comes from deep inside and I have something to say, a story to tell no matter my insignificance in the grand scheme, so think what you will this is me and I care.
You could ask him how things are at home, since he’s backing Hillary Clinton and his wife Alma just announced she’s backing Barack Obama. I bet that’s a fun dinnertime conversation. *g* Seems to be happening a lot this year…just saw an article about that with an Atlanta byline (think it was Shaila Dewan’s in the NYTimes a few days ago).
Wicked Pissa.
-G
Petrocelli…either Clinton or Edwards would be portrayed as a flip-flopper. Edwards because he di9d reverse his position, Hillary because she’s trying to nuance it.
Both have said they were deceived either by the testimony of those brought to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee and by trusting that Bush would allow the UN-based inspectors to fulfill their tasks. Both have admitted that they didn’t fully read the NIE, and didn’t catch the nuances and doubts in the footnotes and addenda. The fact remains that the Bush Administration excised and massaged and stovepiped a lot of what was provided to both Congress and the Intelligence Committees as FACT. Both should have done a better job, but Bush and Cheney DID LIE!
Obama will also be attacked however, one can bet on it. They will pull out his statements supporting the Kerry-Edwards decisions on Iraq to suggest that he changed his mind then. Obama said “I wasn’t on the Intelligence Committee or Senate at the time, so I don’t know how I would have voted.”
That statement will be used, believe me.
The best any of the candidates can say is that they want to get out of the war NOW and that they were willfully deceived, as was the American public. They also need to point out that some people were deceived (whoever the Republican nominee will undoubtedly be) and seem to think that it’s alright to continue to be deceived, continue to lie to the American people about “progress”, and continue to waste American lives and the necessary revenues that we need to make or economic system sustainable once again.
I think that you and I deserve a lot of credit for not breaking out the “How Stupid are you” jokes in the last thread … it wasn’t easy though … *g*
Hey Nahant, do you ever listen to 10 at 10 with the newsclips from years past? My daughter and I caught one recently with the audio from the Dan White verdict and the city erupting in a riot. Mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk were the victims of White’s rampage.
Your reminder is quite apt. When justice is not served, people get angry, not “divisive”. Impeach already.
You know, I would love for someone to ask both Obama and HRC straight out what they will do with all the contractor/mercenary folks who are currently on the Federal Dole. Seriously, would they have the guts to just break (and pay the penalty) for ending their contracts on day 1 in office?
Love to see that question come up in a “debate”.
She’d probably use it if you deleted the “I regret” “the vote was a mistake” and “I am sorry”. A strong statement blaming it on Bush’s lies would do it. She came close to that in the debate.
My rage comes in waves.
I have seen a bumper sticker that says “If you aren’t outraged, you aren’t payin attention.”
Welcome and thanks for input.
-G
That is such a cool suggestion. I’ll try to get it in at the end, or in cocktails before. Don’t think it should be the first Q out of the box.
Besides the obvious Ralph Effect of hosting the GOP debate in the Reagan Library, was anyone else offended by having a jet plane as a backdrop?
I’d like to see that asked too.
I find your points more compelling and I hope Hillary’s people use this angle when this issue is raised again … this mess is the creation of BushCo and she should say as much …
Good Luck to the Repugs if they have to debate Obama … I believe that we only got a glimpse of his punch/counterpunch last night …
The deterioration of the National Guard is just one more step in what Naomi Wolf has been warning about. I’m not so confident as I’d like to be that we’ll have a different president a year from now.