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’…)
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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.
I always find a more substantive discussion on a partiular issue goes down easier if you start with something that gives them a moment to laugh. It’s my granny’s more flies with honey than with vinegar approach, I think… *g*
The plane was Reagan’s “Air Force One” which was retired to his museum/library after he left office.
If it had been an F15 or F16, then maybe I’d have been outraged.
ask him when will he exercise any authority… isnt he chair of ways and means committee?? which has LOTS of power? or am i mistaken on this?
Yes, how about something like:
What did Freud say about men who possess large objects ? *g*
Well, their people are viewing the war as a success so there needs to be a stark image painted of his failings and hang that around the Repugs’ necks …
Yes, Ways & Means. I certainly intend to ask him about those priorities, but expect he’ll cover that in his speech. So I’m hoping that I can pick something specfici he says to probe more deeply.
Investigate!
Impeach!
Use Extraordinary Rendition to bring this Administration en-mass to the Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity!
How many poor souls must die just to make obscene profits for the oil companies??
OT….. i’m just noticing david schuster has been given the 4pm slot on misnbc…….
Where else woult they have a debate in CA, the Nixon Library? It has to be held at the Reagan Catherdral.
Thanks
One of the reasons I comment on this site is its humanity.
That too, though 70% don’t think Iraq war is a success. I was just hypothesizing what Hillary might say in response to the kind of Qs that blame her vote for the war.
me too. good call.
At the end of the last 100 years war, popular lore had it that wolves and bears became fat and bold from feasting on the bodies of the dead, and descended upon half ruined villages to attack the starved populace.
Vote for ‘less jobs more war’ Honest John ‘his straight talk is crock’ McCain!
i bow to your expertise madam eCAHN ;o}
I take your point & will see how it goes. *g*
Oops. I means ‘St McCain’ Sorry for the disrespect.
A friendly wave would do. *g*
Forever? Or is he just subbing for Tucker?
Is that a permanent assignment or is he filling in for Tucker?
Michael Dyson supports Obama and his wife supports Clinton.
Lot’s of mixed Democratic families!
-G
I am sorry to say that I went beyond rage a long time ago. Couldn’t contain it and continue to get up in the morning. Doesn’t make me a better person, though. Rage is probably the only reasonable emotion.
But if the 30 percenters make up half of the votes, we’ve got a tough fight on our hands.
I liked your suggestion and her campaign would do well to add it to their message.
The GWOT will be the centerpiece of the Repug’s platform.
Nixon – Ford – Surplus was 3 billion in 1969 when Nixon took office. Deficit was 74 billion by the end of Ford’s last year. Carter started with 74 billion deficit and ended the same. Reagan started with 74 billion deficit, ended with 154 billion deficit. GHWBush began with 154 billion deficit, ended with 290 billion deficit.
Clinton inherited the 290 billion deficit and closed with a 236 billion surplus. Dim Son started with Clinton’s 236 billion surplus and by y/e 2007 has a 163 billion deficit thus far. (The end of Dubya’s first term the deficit was 413 billion).
LMAO!!!!
A lesson I have to take over and over, thanks teach’
In oh so many wonderful ways. It’s one of our strengths.
She is very brave … I would not want to debate Michael Dyson about anything …
The reason I lurk so often… nice folks like you say it before I can type it. Thanks Maddy, we’re in the same boat.
The fact is the Senate Intelligence Committe WAS given manufactured and stovepiped evidence. John Edwards has said that, as have others who have investigated the matter. The foreign evidence was, at that time, equivocable…and the Brits, in their gussied-up (recursive with US intelligence and WHIG baloney) White Paper supported the US “documentation”.
The WH effectively sealed-off the Congress from the doubts in the CIA, the State Department, the Department of Energy, etc. Much of the information we have since developed shows that this sealing was quite effective. In fact Bush even issued an Executive Order prohibitting the presentation of any material to Congress except by a few delegated WH underlings.
It’s important that we not get too anachronistic here. All the stuff about Plame, Al Baradei’s staff discovery of the Niger document fraud, the waterboarding of Al Qaida members who confessed to Iraq-Al Qaida links, the discovery that “Curveball” was a mentally deranged asylum-seeking refugee with no direct status to know what he was claiming, the misinterpretation of the “centrifuge” tubes, etc. All that emerged later, after the Iraq AUF. There were doubts about the evidence presented, mainly because it could have gone either way. But Bush was using other stuff to make the case that was “one way” behind the scenes.
*waving*
howdy eCAHN, didja see the pics?
tucker still has the 6pm slot… i dont know if schuster has the slot officially but he’s been on it for at least a week now… if not his – who’s he place-holding for?? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Hmmm! No mention of that possibility in the report. Wonder if they have enough forces to counter a large, well-trained force of former Special Forces officers from the worlds diverse militaries? Do they have a plan on file for THAT?
I have to say, in all honesty, the Powell presentation at the UN was effective at the time. Mainly because he put what credibility so many people thought he had then on the line for it — and was so serious about it. That pulled a lot of doubters along. It wasn’t until later that so many of the manufactured bullshit details oozed out publicly. (Although, to be fair El Baradei, Blix and co. were sounding alarm bells then about it being hot air.)
It’s so hard to see how fuzzy they were making things then from how much muddy water we’ve managed to cross now, though. We know SO much more detail now, including the whole WHIG dodge and phony planted stories show.
Yet, somehow the Democrats won’t make the Republics defend that record. Instead, they will be forced to defend their prayer techniques on some other nonsensical issue.
All great points to add to what eCahnomics wrote above … but they will throw in the fact that so many Dem Senators voted against AUMF and ask whether she looked at the evidence they did. This is not about the war, it is to paint her as not capable for the job.
I’m not attacking Hillary, I am suggesting that she needs to be better prepared to counter this attack than she was last night …
Echan, bluejean we don’t know each other except here but one thing I know, you all care and try to be effective in changing things, thank you for that.
Now out the door into the beautiful white wonderland to assuage the wolf at my door-laughing.
No. I was busy for the next two days & didn’t get back here until Sunday evening. Do you have the link? (I have the ones on my camera. Pretty racey.)
speaking of pix bluejean…… where’d you post them??
Excellent info. Where did you find your numbers?
(((Maddy)))
What ever happened the the pic card sent to jane a couple of years ago of all the pups?
Powell has remained silent, enhancing his image as a Bush toady. It would be nice to hear from him how he was duped into that presentation. If he has any remaining political aspirations, he needs to come clean.
OT and just FYI:
From the site that caused all the Darcy Burner furor this afternoon:
Powell’s presentation was made to be sold to Americans, none of us outside of America bought it … not even when Blair went around with his Dossier …
I thought the Powell presentation was a farce in real time. I had already figured out there almost certainly no WMD in Iraq (having been barely able to find the country on the map 9 months earlier). So I looked at it from that perspective. When Powell put up that fuzzy picture of four rectangles with red ovals drawn around them & claimed it was a satellite photo of mobile biological labs, I almost laughed out loud. Couldn’t do that though, as I’d arrived for a job interview & the potential employer & minions were watching the presentation. They all were lapping it up as though it were the word of God. Didn’t get the job, needless to say (for oh so many reason).
He will have to explain how his net worth has risen so quickly as well …
Yeah. Indeed.
Dyson is one heck of a speech deliverer.
Excellent.
-G
I can’t imagine that now
Hi juslin, here they are.
I think Powell’s number 2 did speak out about it when he first stopped working for the Bush Administration (sorry, can’t bring his name to mind immediately…anyone remember if it was Wilkerson?).
yes. it was hard to for me to reconcile myself to that – i spoke on the phone with one of my mentors from grad school the day after powell’s presentation (a really smart insightful guy about people), and was he was really convinced. i tried to tell him that the only convincing thing was powell’s attitude – that there was no real evidence there. but a lot of people don’t know how dishonest a guy powell is and were willing to take his word for it.
I really wonder where the hell the “Second Report” that was about how the Administration (and other policymakers) has gone. That was supposed to be out well over two years ago. Where is it…especially now that we have a Democratic-”controlled” Senate?
Maybe it’s being saved up just for this purpose…if Hillary is the nominee…to take the last flatulent bit of support from that argument?
Re. the main topic…does anyone know if their State National Gaurd has drawn up contingency plans to deal with a potential internal coup by private contractors? This would seem to be of critical import in those States that “host” groups like Blackwater. In fact, I would think it would be mandatory that any State that has a large private paramilitary force within its boundaries have adequate security to prevent such an action, and the means to shut them down…even locally.
sangemon,
You left out the most important part of that comment though:
So FDL and the others blogs raised $123K for Darcy without expenses and Reichert netted $36k for his fundraiser. All the more reason for her “consultant” to STFU
The look on Hans Blix’s face should have been enough to know Powell’s testimony was a crock.
I had long since reached that point of not believing a word out of Bush or Cheney’s mouth as well. But I can remember conversations with well-educated folks who bought the whole thing hook, line, and sinker — mainly due to Powell’s presentation. It was a sales job, and an effective one for the audience targeted, I think.
Hey, they don’t call it disaster capitalism for nuthin’, ya know. Actually, the Republicans are well prepared for the next attack/disaster. Read The Shock Doctrine. That explains it all.
me too. although i was willing to believe there might be some bio or chem weapons – certainly nothing to start a war over. clearly the best chance we had of them being used (if they existed) was by invading the country. their arguments for war just did not add up. and they were clearly lying about the the so-called nuc-q-lar program.
I saw it in terms of propaganda too. I saw Powell being brought in as the closer.
It was his presentation that gave many on the center and the left the cover they needed. “If Colin Powell says so……I guess it must be so…”
I just watched enough of other sources, including Blix and new that Iraq was a far weaker country than was being portrayed.
When they started up with the drone plane stories I knew they were just fear mongering and that they were going to war no matter what.
Powell will go down in infamy with me.
-G
Yep. Wilkerson. But be careful of him. He’s the one who wanted to disappear the State Dept. into the DOD. Once I read that, I never trusted another word of his.
This is what we are these days:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTKGvvafFeM
very nice…. how can i send them to my flickr page??
I actually had an email exchange with a NYT repoter (can’t remember who but it wasn’t Judy Miller) shortly afterwards, who assured me that Colin Powell agonized over the presentation, and threw out most of what he had been requested to say. Therefore Powell was an honorable man and should be trusted. As I had nothing but the likely truth on my side, and couldn’t talk to the insiers like he could, of course I couldn’t convince him. That DC bubble is impossible to prick.
Pretty simple response to that. Are the Republicans claiming that they NOW agree with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party in voting not to Authorize the President to not have the Power of Determination to go to war? Just who is flip-flopping here?
She can point out that Senators are privy to all sorts of different information, and when one is presented classified information that is false in ones Committee that can affect ones decisions. Other Senators, and those outside of Congress, were not aware of such information. Or had access to other information. They often drew different conclusions.
It was the SOTU line about the aluminum tubes that really stuck out as BS propaganda to me. I remember yelling at the TV as he spoke, “That’s a lie!” All the fuss was about the 16 words later, but the aluminum tubes were the big lie.
Don’t know. If eCAHN has your e address I’ll send em to you. That OK?
I’ll send you an email.
she has it – thats a bet bluejeans ;o
]
spitting tweety is on now… yeah i watch misnbc so you all dont have to….. ROFLMAO!!!!
I suspect that a Blackwater coup would focus not in their base states but on the nerve centers of the U.S. government and military. Bush would relieve and replace the military commanders who might be loyal to the Constitution, and Blackwater would enforce those decisions. It would be lightning fast.
CHS,
A Mrs. Powell (also Alma) story. She writes children’s books and was in NYC for a signing. This was before his UN speech. I went to get some books signed for nieces & nephews (how often can you own a book signed by the wife of the Secy of State?). While waiting in the (short) line, I thought of asking her: “why does your husband want to be the losing memeber of a losing team?” For once I made myself behave & didn’t ask. I’ve regretted it since.
Maybe Hillary thought that Powell was a straight-up guy (or believed she could read his body language). Powell went tete-a-tete with Bill at times, so perhaps she thought that he’d stand up to Bush. But Powell was there to support a Republican President…not a Democrat.
Not sure what Hillary’s knowledge of Hans Blix was. And there was all that bulldada coming forth from the American Arms Inspector who kept pushing things…forgot his name…who only admitted his errors in 2003.
that’s a great post
we know as as fact cheney set up his fake “cia b” team
this is a pseudo cia formed to say things when the cia won’t do what the vice presdident wants
he’s done it before
it’s what they do, he did it as a team with rumsfeld against nixon’s detant, he doesn’t want piece, he wants war’
please click and read that link, you will be enraged he was able to get away with it again
and now he’s trying it with Iran but we are hopefully inoculated
I wouldn’t trust the GOoPers with a sno-cone machine either. They’d probably use contaminated ice because it was cheap. [/snark]
The worst part is, and this goes back to the report we’re still awaiting from Senate Intel, exactly what evidence was put in front of Congress? How thoroughly culled and cherry-picked were the highly classified reports that they were given? How much did they know about the Cheney thumb on the report scales? Still so many things that we suspect, but don’t know the full extent of on this.
Every time I think about it, it just pisses me off all over again. All those trips back and forth to CIA that Scooter and Shooter took…
Thanks for reminding me of that. I’d read that before but had forgotten it. Why is it that no one exposes these people? Ditto Colin Powell (google Colin Powell my lai, which my army major efriend put me onto. They hate Powell in the army, or at least the one I know speaks for).
Yet another job for the lefty blogs. Actually Jaun Cole & antiwar.com have done some good work on the lack of nukes in Iran.
We will never know… something about a LITTLE FIRE IN THE EXECUTIVE BUILDING A WHILE BACK…EVIDENCE? WHAT EVIDENCE?/ Have you seen any follow up stories about that?
I think that this gets to the gist of what most of us were thinking on the left. Even if there had been a few residual non-nuclear WMD’s (not Condi’s “mushroom cloud”- for which the evidence was basically so weak that it was worthless) was it even relevant to going to war.
I think that’s where Obama stood as a State Senator. Clinton wanted to know more, and what type of materials existed…but unfortunately DID make an error of judgement (political pressure from the drum-beating on the public).
I’m still not sure how this helps the Republicans in any way except peeling off people from the Democrats who would foolishly be voting against their interests in eventually ending the war?
By raising the argument they make themselves appear even more culpable, still embedded in a meme of “there were WMD’s…the war was RIGHT” and willing to fight the never ending battle because of “past sacrifices” justify even more deaths “in their name.” The fact is they died for a lie…so why should more people be sent to continue to die for those lies?
Was thinking something similar. Put them in charge of shit collection since they are entirely full of it.
I am SO enraged we allowed rumsfeld and cheney to do that again
I only just found out that story about 2 months ago but that was known long before we attacked Iraq
it does not make any sense the democrats let this team pull that crap
Bingo, Jane! McCain is very supportive of the surge…and so is, taaadaaa, Hillary Clinton!
That name ring a bell for anyone?
I only ask because, as all of her supporters and defenders on here are risking arm injury patting themselves on the back for our having two such “FINE candidates to choose from”, I’m going to point out that two bombings in Iraq killed at least 78 people earlier today, and Hillary Clinton is up to her elbows in the responsibility for this, AND the rest of the mayhem that george bush has inflicted on Iraq, for her unapologetic vote for the invasion, and for the nearly unstinting support that she has given bush and the republicans in sustaining the misery.
I challenge any of her defenders on here to put up links to where she has spoken with outrage at what is going on in Iraq. She has never risked one atom of political capital to name this bloody, greed-and-lie-based-abomination for what it is. Not a micron.
Now, as Obama is, pardon the expression, surging, we are once again hearing the “unity” cry, and seeing Wolf Blitzer scolded for asking questions that might point up some of the serious differences between she and Obama.
As it was in the beginning of the primary season, “unity” is that same old dog-whistle for “Lay off Hillary!” I don’t think so. I am, now, a backer of Barack Obama, and i LIKE the idea of a thorough scrutinizing of their respective warts. We don’t need to be surprised.
Wolf Blitzer has been accused of trying to start a “pie-fight”. Well, folks, it’s the democratic primaries, and we’re down to two candidates, and while I condone neither racism or sexism, with what’s at stake in this election, I would prefer hammers and chisels to pies. It won’t hurt us. We’re going to unite, in the general, but what it will do is let us know which candidate was, and is, really against the bloody debacle in Iraq. And which one is most likely to take the painful and controversial steps to end it, or at least, our part in it.
In a way, her refusal to unequivocally apologize for her part in creating the shitmire, has a perverse honesty to it. Of course, the motivation for her “honesty” is that she is fearful of alienating all those republicans and conservatives who (as she so savvily understands) are breathlessly waiting for the chance to vote and help the democrats put her in the white house. So; we get the Kaye Bailey Hutchinson/GOP exculpatory “I would vote differently today”.
Excuse me for saying so, but in light of a million dead Iraqis, and another million and a half refugees, that is piss-thin gruel, and I don’t give a shit whether it’s coming from a democrat or a republican.
Lincoln Chaffee said it best: it should have been “a career-ending vote.”
Instead, we have this phalanx of deniers for whom, evidently, the sight of Clinton giving speeches in a Hitler Jugend dirndl would not be a point against her.
Nothing has changed. Nothing. If she were that male Senator named “Smith”, with HER track record, they would generously be sending money to “his” opponent in any election in which “he” was running. And they would be right.
Also, there has been a lot of talk from Edwards voters about voting for John, despite his withdrawal. I guess it’s doing the touch-screen equivalent of a write-in, in some of the primaries on Tuesday.
Speaking as a loyal and disappointed Edwards supporter, I would ask them to re-think that alternative, and to remember that there is only one politician who can save the republican party in this election, and her name is Hillary Clinton.
And while we can parse the meaning of “suspend” until the cows come home, the sad fact is, that John Edwards is no longer in the race for the democratic nomination. It’s down to two, and only one of them has blood up to her elbows.
And if we Edwards supporters go into a pout, and waste our votes on the chance that we can give John more delegates, I’d remind us all, that if Hillary wins big on Tuesday, she can use Edward’s delegates as a footwipe as she enters the Convention Center in Denver this summer.
And if that happens, we will hear republican assholes like Rove, who will be positively ECSTATIC at seeing the democrats pick a candidate who simply cannot make Iraq an issue, and who doesn’t even have the desire to do it,
praising her as a “formidable” candidate, and talking UTTER shit about how great it is that american voters have a clear choice in the election between McCain (who looks to be the GOP nominee) and Clinton.
Hillary’s worst fears are coming true. She couldn’t promenade to the nomination. Edwards and Obama made her get out of the Beltway Limo and get her hands dirty. Bill can’t do it for her. she has to do it.
But we Edwards supporters have a chance to help put “paid” to the candidacy of the only candidate left who supported the invasion; who has, and still IS, supporting the surge, and who is trying to hide under the “moderate-progressive” tent.
We need to get her out of the tent, once and for all. She doesn’t belong there, and she damn sure hasn’t earned residence, for the better part of the past five years.
Don’t waste your vote. At this point, a vote for John is a vote for Hillary.
Second that.
I am wont to say that if I, knowing nothing about the subject, could figure it out in advance, why couldn’t everyone else?
The context I put Hillary’s vote into is that she knew she might run for prez. If she voted no, she could be labelled weak on defense, an unforgiveable sin for the first woman running for prez. So downside of a no vote was huge. Downside of an up vote very small, because she had so much company. At least that’s my projection of her thinking at the time.
She’s never been able to come up with a plausible story since. (She can’t tell the real story.)
Uh…DiFi is among those pushing the plan to give a few hundred wealthy Central Valley families 15% of all the Federally subidized water in California.
The families can turn around and sell the subsidized irrigation water on the open market – pocketing 40 Billion dollars
Better off than what?
DiFi serves corporatists, not Californians.
Well said, and beautifully argued, especially that concerning Hillary neutralizing the Iraq advantage for the Dems.
One quibble: there can’t be enough scolding for Blitzer ;-)
Kemo, thanks for the props.
I agree, Blitzer has been…strange. I haven’t watched him a lot, but I sure don’t see him as a Hillary basher. More like a pimp for the conventional wisdom which WAS that Hillary would sweep all before her and enter Denver like some new-age Caesar, to receive the adoring plaudits of the democrats. Now, he’s like a pimp who’s lost his string. :o)
Since that notion has gone a-gleying, we have the much-despised (by some people) horse race. And we have no small number of people, especially, her supporters, telling us that there really isn’t much difference between she and Obama.
It’s nonsense. I throw out the “electability” word. If anyone thinks that Barack Obama, even in the residual bogs of racism which are happily drying up in the deep south, will engender the kind of visceral reaction to his candidacy, as will Clinton, they are badly, badly, mistaken.
Racism has been branded. It’s not gone yet, but it’s been named, and vilified, to the point that very few rednecks want to have the word slung at them.
But; despising Hillary Clinton, with the heat of an Oxy-Acetylene torch?
For a TON of us, that, by God, is as american as apple pie. High School drop-outs with room temperature I.Q.’s share it with university professors; shade-tree mechanics eking out a living by turning wrenches out behind their double-wide, could have a brotherly conversation with CEO’s, about how unGodly it would be if Clinton were elected.
And it is anything but regional. Brothers and sisters, that song is sung across the fruited plane.
It’s patently unfair. Bill made an utter fool of her, in front of the world, and she handled it with about as much class and dignity as was possible. She is a bright, articulate, human being. i LIKED her. A lot!
I was elated when she won that Senate seat. I, too, was thinking:
“Springboard to the presidency!” And if she had fought the good fight; if she had joined the 21 democratic Senators who had the intelligence and the courage to vote against bush’s lunatic crusade, and if she had stayed the course in opposing it, I would be singing her praises.
If she had only, as I saw John Edwards do, 3 months ago in Georgetown, S.C., stood up and with some skein of shame in her voice, said flatly: “I was wrong and it’s something I’ll take to my grave with me.”…made some uneqivocal mea culpa for her part in the carnage, instead of farting and tap-dancing…I could have forgiven her, as I forgave Edwards.
But she was already in full triangulation mode, and diligently, and idiotically, moving to the right. Time and again, when she could have taken a chance to speak what she had to know was the truth, by then, that the best that could be said of Iraq, was that it was a hideous miscalculation; and at worst a cloth of greed, lies, hubris, and chicanery unrivalled in american politics, she either kept silent, or put out the GOP shitspeak about “It was a good idea, but tactical mistakes were made.”
She lost me; made an enemy of me, when I read about, and then found, that clip of her speech to the “Take back America” conference, in which she had the horrible misjudgement to say to a progressive crowd, that “the Iraqi government isn’t doing enough” to make Iraq stable, or words very close to that.
The crowd was momentarily stunned, and then a lot of them started booing, and her supporters began clapping and cheering for her, and the moment dissolved into a mish-mash of sound, except, she tried to salvage something out of it…
This came at a time when our casualties in Iraq were high, and bush and his house liars were frantically and systematically
trying to shift the blame to the “Iraqi Government”.
Of course, the Iraqi Government was hiding under it’s desks in the green zone, trying to escape the hell-on-earth that the invasion had made of their country.
I was enraged, and I use the word accurately. It was an obscenity, for her to parrot that line of exculpatory bullshit for bush, and a huge brainfart, to do it in front of a progressive group.
Now, nothing she can say or do, will make me respect her. Someone posted another link, on The GroupNewsBlog, of her sucking up to Sun Myung Moon, and praising his organization. If Obama has done that, please, someone post it, and let’s take a few points from him, for doing it.
I’m glad Obama’s young. (He’s older than Clinton was in his first run for president, I’ve read) I expect the term “Kennedyesque” will be used at him a few times. I think that it will be good to get away from middle-aged men who are too much enamored of the status quo, and who are afraid to change it, even when it’s obviously harmful to so many americans.
I think Obama represents a chance to do that. He’s made some shit votes, too, just like Edwards, as CinnamonApe fairly pointed out, but his conscience, and his hands, are one hell of a lot cleaner than Hillary Clinton’s, and he’s a hell of a lot more electable.
I just hope that Edwards and Gore have the courage to turn their backs on the business-as-usual, and to ask…help…Obama to do the same. If they’ll come out for Obama, I think the republicans won’t know what hit them, the tide will be so strong and pervasive.
I LUST to see, 6 months from now, John McCain raking Obama for not supporting Operation Endless Clusterfuck.
Obama can quote one of the best friends the american military has ever had in congress; John Murtha:
“Why should we listen to you?”
The ‘tards will fight frantically at first, but after that, I believe it’ll be a cakewalk; a “war” that will pay for itself. :o)