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Following the returns last night [surely you were enthralled by the Huckabee surge?] the world continued to go to hell in more places than Nashville.
For, as of this writing, three more lucky Americans won an eternal rest thanks to the Bush Lottery taking place for the last five years in Iraq. The butcher’s bill goes to 3,948.
And the surge, now being touted by St. McCain as being the "victory" that is his responsibility, how’s that going?
Oh, about how you’ve come to expect:
For the last year, U.S.-led forces have pursued the militants from one stronghold to the next in Diyala, a province of winding waterways and abundant farms stretching north and east from Baghdad to the Iranian border. They have captured or killed hundreds of people, most said to be members or affiliates of the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq. The American-led troops have destroyed weapons caches, training bases, bomb-making factories and torture houses.
Yet the Sunni Arab militants identified by many U.S. commanders as their most lethal enemy and the greatest obstacle to stability in Iraq continue to flow into the province and farther north to the regions of Mosul and Kirkuk.
Same song, different words. Different places, same ol’ sh*t. Five years down, another $100 billion down the crapper, and no end in sight. How many times have we declared progress or that we’re winning and how many times has it turned out to have not occurred? How many times are yet to come?
Well, there is January 20, 2009 — we hope.
(photo via Scout Prime, who blogs so well here)
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Attaboy Attaturk (trying that one again). It is truly disheartening to watch an administration, a government, a people, a nation so caught up in the mendacious, the propaganda, the illusion, the deception, that it commits crimes against humanity, let alone war crimes, on another nation’s people that have offered it no harm. One of the lines in Khalil Gibran’s Garden of the Prophet prefacing Robert Fisk’s “Pity the Nation” is striking – “Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.” The country is now reaping their great bounty. I do not know what it is like to live in the belly of such a beast, but I am saddened that history has turned to such ends.
Attaturk, The National Review cover has always confused me because I’m not sure what we win.
Is it 1968 yet?
BBC is reporting that another icon has passed, Indian guru Maharishi Yogi dies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7229597.stm
Hey, Raven -
Have you seen this article about the status of legal battles for water in Georgia?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/us/06water.html
Waccamaw, Somebody told me the other night that we don’t have a water problem. Oh by the way the same person said that the economy is strong.
Morning, folks…
Good, these goobers really think they “own” the goddamn rain. I drove up to Dahlonega yesterday and it is amazing how far down Lanier is. There is also unchecked construction every damn where.
Do you get any sleep at all? I think we’re the same age. I’m turned 59 on January 1…*g*
I hit the rack at 10pm and get up at 5:30. I have this squirmy little cocker in my lap as we speak. Wake the bride at 6:24 for the 2 mile hike and then hit the computer for a day of work!
Sand, meet head.
If we ain’t got no water problem, why the h*ll are these lunatics praying for rain?
I get to sleep around 1-2 AM CT, then get up around 5′ish…But I take 2 short 30 min. to one hour naps at night between 7 PM and 10 PM Ct. I run in the morning when I get up. I’ve been a runner since 1979, but since 2001, I have been running only 4-5 miles a day…
The bride? You got married recently?
Georgians are very confusing!
Can’t run anymore, swim a mile a day. I’ve been married for 8 years to a sweet southern girl from Appomattox, VA! There are some pics on my FB.
Things are slow as molasses at the Lake this hour, eh?
Confused you mean.
Have to check them out… Me: divorced since 1994. Have two girlfriends: one in Paris, the other in LA. And I’m out of the marriage business. I have a 19-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son, so been there, done that…
I guess we have the Lake all to ourselves at this hour…*g*
We need a strong dollar pledge the price of everything is going up. Who cares about taxes if the Dollar drops more than you are saving on taxes.
We need a every Dollar will be taxed at the same rate pledge if you work at a job your wages should be taxed the same as investment income.
Also every company should pay taxes at the same rate the loopholes should be closed.
That and no more political charities, well all charities should give at least 90% of the cash they raise to charity. That and the cash should be used to help people not funneled into political causes like Bush.
Raven, Thanks! What do you think about Huckabee?
Unchecked development is gonna come back and bite a lotta asses…..and it won’t be long in happenin’. :-(
I get so ticked at the twits at the beach who just *have* to have their little pieces of lawn all around their Mccottages with the sprinkler systems running every day and then pave every other inch where there isn’t grass so what little rain we get can’t sink in where it’s desperately needed. Smartest move I’ve made in recent years was to plant the entire front yard in sea oats with native plants coming up in the open spaces. No maintenance, no human applied water….
Well, electionwise, I did what I could. Of the five boroughs of NYC, Brooklyn came closest to gunking up Hillary’s clean sweep: 50% Clinton, 48% Obama, 1% Edwards.
And the Times chalks up the Connecticut win for Obama to the activism of the Lamont coalition, which this very blog had no small hand in building and strengthening.
Not that I’m saluting Captain Platitude, mind you; he’s just marginally less odious than my Senator, who still refuses to apologize for her complicity in precipitating (conservatively) half a million Iraqi deaths.
So now, urgently, how do we shame these two wretches into hightailing it back to Washingon to help Russ and Chris keep the Constitution alive?
Lanier is a Corps lake. Why not privatize it and let the new owner sell water to those who choose to consume it.
Gets the govt out of yet another business it shouldn’t be in, saves taxpayer money, brings the efficiency of business to a wasteful activity and provides citizens yet another empowering choice.
Regards,
Grover
Sunny, You should call Neal Boortz with that idea!
We need to confront 100 years in Iraq McCain how does he plan to pay for the war?
Is the Surge really working then why does Bush want to keep those troops he promised to bring back home?
What about accountability this war has gone on longer than WW2 but the Surge is working so well we can’t bring down our troop levels. Why because McCain and the Center Dems to be fair have held nobody accountable for mistakes.
McCain, Rummy, Kagan, Wolfowitz they all think that they are the greatest General since Patton a public shaming is in order.
Do we have any pups in the areas that are getting hit so badly with storms overnight and currently?
I’m in Minneapolis. We were supposed to be hit. But nothing so far. It’s 23 F. Nothin’
The tornadoes have been devastating. The north west section of GA is under a tornado watch now. It probably covers where Mr. Bill lives.
Bush’s budget is a tax increase in three ways first after all if the Federal government cuts spending the states have to raise taxes or cut the program. This passing the buck needs to be called out.
Second if the population increases then we need more money for schools, police, roads etc. Freezing or cutting spending means that the states have to raise taxes or cut programs because the increase in population means increased costs.
Third the dollar is dropping in value that makes the price of everything go up in relation to the drop in the dollar. Police need uniforms, Schools need desks, Firemen need ladders and roads need tar. Freezing or cutting the budget forces cutbacks or higher taxes from the states.
I think this cheap trick is one of Karl’s surprises for November he and Bush are creating higher taxes and the GOP wants that as an issue in November.
We need to make noise on this issue and place the blame straight on every GOPer who supports his budget.
the surge has NEVER worked and it is disgusting the democrats let these repukelicans make believe it has
it’s failed every promise, there are NO goals that have been met, it did NOT make it possible for the Iraqi’s to stabailize their government
AND IT IS NOT A SURGE
the democrats NEED to ATTACK the idiot that suggested this surge would make gains every military expert said WOULD NOT HAPPEN
the surge has done ONE thing the president wanted;
the surge made it more difficult for the next president to get out of Iraq
and ALL democrats need to make it CLEAR, the president’S only goal was to create a never ending presence in Iraq so his pals could find excuses to continue aquiring middle class assets
allowing mccain to claim the surge was a success HAS GOT TO STOP
mccain gave himself and out too;
he said that he wanted MORE troops then the president assigned
wn
in this fasion, when the democrats point out what a miserable, incompetant, irresponsible “strategy” the escalation was, mccain THINKS he can say “but I wanted more and even said less was not likely to work”
where we will play clip after clop of him taking ownership of this escalation
we had BETTER win the next election and that president had BETTER turn Iraq over to the Iraqi’s
and IF the next president wants to rebuild the damage that was done by the previous, they are going to need to send this president to the international bar of justice
see if he thinks he can make a case that ANYTHING he did was in the interest of anyone but his rich pals in the petro industry
Good morning, pups. It’s MoDo and someone named Anya Kamenetz in the NYT today. MoDo, with dripping fangs and claws out, directs her attention to — who else?— Hillary Clinton. Apparently now both she and Bill are “propelled by Cheneyesque paranoia.” Anya Kamenetz has an op-ed piece titled “You’re 16, You’re Beautiful and You’re a Voter” advocating lowering not only the voting age but the age for marriage and obtaining credit cards to 16. I wonder what else we could then
allowencourage those 16 year old kids to do? Hmmm… let me guess… join the military?http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/
The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and the biscuits are out of the oven. I’ve got to try how to stay awake at my desk today, after having been up too late last night. Have a great day.
Hi there…I’ll get to MoDo later. Need to take a shower and all that in a few…*g*
After you do your morning ablutions I’d be interested in your take on that other op-ed. I’m opposed to the idea, meself.
morning all.
The race I care about is John Laesch in the IL 14. He’s been a fighting dem who came to both YKos events and is a great guy. Vet, union carpenter, farmer, our values. If the Rahmbo pupet Foster really honestly beats him we’re in trouble—I mean the net roots—because should Hill pull it out we’ll be seeing nothing but Rahmbo corpo tools picked as local candidates for the foreseeable future.
That’s what’s been on my mind. Not. very. happy.
I still can’t believe all the business experts on MSNBC have fallen for Karl’s trick no wonder the market is going down. Is a Harvard MBA or Chicago Econ degree from Milton Friedman really a small school bus job program?
Look at how much Rudy or Mitt have spent on the election and then look at Obama who had a plan to spend money in cheaper media markets that have more electoral votes per person.
I still can’t get over that he won in Western States and he got value for his dollar doing so. I want him to go more LEFT but still I am impressed with his thrifty strategy.
Most folks with a ton of cash just spend and don’t worry about the price. Obama shopped smart I have to give him props.
Testify Preacher Testify!
IL-14
Foster, Bill Dem 31,910 42%
Laesch, John Dem 31,587 42%
Serra, Joe Dem 5,947 8%
Stein, Jotham Dem 5,757 8%
I assume this is in recount territory as all the votes are in and the Trib. isn’t calling it. If John needs money for a recount I hope the firepups are ready to pitch in.
Doesn’t the state pay if its around 1%?
I used to live in Crystal Lake Mchenery County what towns are in this district?
This is Illinois, where votes cost money.
DuPage
Western and SouthWestern suburbs
(I’m pretty sure – Im in Cook)
I was thinking about him and missing his morning visits….do you know why he stopped hanging at the Lake?
Hilary needs to go after Modo and Tweety the supposedly liberal media that hates her. If she attacks them on their record of how they have treated her and God knows that she does have several horrible examples to choose from then she can run as an antiestablishment candidate after all who is hated more by the Liberal Media than her?
Then she can as a closer go after the Conservative Media who hate her even more to prove her point.
Mornning Raven. how’s the cocker doing?
Looks like Kendall County firures heavy on Laesch’s website as well.
Don’t have time right now to search further, but here is a link to IL statutes search
http://www.ilga.gov/search/iga…..scope=ilcs
You’ll need to shower afterwards. Wondering, how many people stayed up for the long haul, say until Missouri was redeclared?
Rolondo Cruz verdict territory? Isn’t that area more Republican than any other place in Illinois? Wait this is a Dem primary right I’m sure the local GOP would love to help a more liberal candidate get the Democratic nomination to face off against them in November.
The GOP would think its a dirty trick, they would love it! The problem is do we have any way to reach the GOP dirty tricks office in Illinois?
NPR said 27 now dead (AR, MS, TN & KY affected – dunno specific locations). Kinda unstable here – gonna be 72 today w/ cold front coming thru mid day. Mostly under 40 for a couple of months, and substantially colder.
Someone on NPR news this am actually used the word torture – think it’s a first for them.
Mr Bill said he had a new job. Think it was multi-locations. Maybe he’s spending time on the road.
Think I found it Mack $10,000 dollars
“Any person, including a candidate, qualified pursuant to this Section and desiring to contest the results of an election for such an office shall, within 15 days of the date of the official proclamation of results of such election, file a Petition of State Election Contest with the clerk of the Supreme Court together with a filing fee in the amount of $10,000.
(Source: P.A. 89‑5, eff. 1‑1‑96.)”
http://www.ilga.gov/legislatio…..on+Code%2E
It’s a tossup who’s dirtier in IL
IIRC IL-14 was Hastert’s turf
Chicago collar counties are very R
Funny tho, two Republican suburban co-workers , one male ex-Marine, one female originally south-sider both have expressed strong preferences for Obama over the entire field.
Neither would give a second’s thought to Hillary.
Strange currents.
“Well, yuh, sure, Ol’Mac’s still preznit, but since the stroke, Huckabee’s runnin’ thangs….”
Now if that doesn’t fill you with campaignin’ zeal, nothing will….
1,743 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Raven and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
“Is it 1968 yet?”
EEEE-doggies!!! Right as the God damned rain there brother Raven! But for the rest a you Freedom Fighters, we have a huge group a brand new ‘cruits from the college campuses and even public school teachers(”FNG’s ” back in the day…)that are all saddeled up jest waitin fer someone ta give ‘em some orders and a map. My three kids ages 36, 23, and 20 years are SOOOOO pumped after the experience of the Obama caucuses in Minnesota that I hafta strap it up ta keep up…these kids remind me of the “Clean For Gene” folks in 1968 …the real “movement” was not organized around a candidate though (Bobby K had been killed and McCarthy had almost had a stroke when he saw the power of what his candidacy had cultivated…he was never the radical that the students thought he was). Anyways, the student movement and the anti-war assault army was grass-roots and not top down, that was at once its strength and it’s ultimate undoin’ because there was no way to infiltrate the established political party structure though many of the “new Democrats” like the Freedom Democrats in Mississippi tried.
So what we old war horses here at the Lake hafta do is try and point these new comers to their history and get ‘em ta understanhd that they will hafta carry Barak into the convention through the streets. Let’s start talkin’ about a 1968 reunion on the streets og Denver this August.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THIS THING IS GETTIN’ INTERESTIN’!!!
Why do I feel that the longer the primary process goes the further down the drain we fall. I keep hoping that there will be something, anything, positive coming out of these candidates but all I hear is the same old rhetoric.
this was Hastert’s district. Laesch ran a hard campaign against him on 06 when none of the machine folks were willing to take him on. He got somewhere around 40% of the vote. He’s our kind of guy and we need to continue to back him or Rahmbo wins.
I still haven’t had a chance to actually read the papers carefully. I know here turnout was expected to be about 30% and topped 50%. Any turnout numbers/breakdown that anyone is aware of? (I really should start working…after all, it’s what they pay me for…!)
How about sec of state lieberman grabbing the mike and saying “I am in charge”
LOL!!
good morning!
Hey! She’s a mess. Just back form our walk with her in the stroller. She is soooooo wiggly and energetic and it’s hard to keep her calm for a month to let this disc heal. thx
here’s what’s on Washington Journal this morning, looks like an hour of Blankley, which is why at 9 o’clock my tv will be very blankley looking.
Wednesday, February 6
7am – Newspaper Articles & Viewer Calls
8am – Paul West, Baltimore Sun, National Political Correspondent
8:30am – Ezra Klein, American Prospect, Staff Writer | Articles
9am – Tony Blankley, Washington Times, Columnist | Columns
she must have been glad tho to get a walk around outside this morning.
One minute of my imagined exchange with the National Review:
DOV
How can you tell we’re “winning?”
NR
Things are quieter.
DOV
Assuming they are, why do you think they’re quieter?
NR
The surge did it. The surge was successful.
DOV
Why do you equate a lull with success?
NR
Because…because we just do.
DOV
The surge in Baghdad has been calculated to be roughly an additional troop for every six acres or so. How could that possibly “succeed” in anything at all?
NR
Because things are…they’re quieter.
Yea! We’re winning!!!!!! *cartwheels* We’re winning! We’re winning! Woohoo! *striking up the band* Woohoo! Winning, winning, winning!!!!!! *giving myself a high five*
Spit.
The crow is up
Let’s go baby ,time to kick the war to the curb!
UFPJ working hard to end it ,Iraq winter solder will run the week of the 12th(?) look into live streaming to your area.
Kick the sand away from the heads buried ,cause they ain’t buried deep enough for me to not reach um.
Ordered tee’s yesterday which will be my new uniform,
Front is a number 5 in a circle w/ the bottom filled w/ red blood which is dripping out the opening
the back has: end the war
a million dead is enough
Peace now damn it
3-19-08
Cost $ 219 for twelve
One life saved Priceless
Freddie Mercury sung: What the hell we fighting for ,keep getting louder and louder NOW
Good, if sad, point, Attaturk; about losing three more of our troops in Iraq.
And let us not forget who applauds the surge, and who does not.
Marion – I don’t read MoDo anymore, but I did read the other Op-Ed. I agree with her points with regard to phasing in social-legal responsibilities, but not at 16. Of my 3 kids (19, 22, 31) 2 of the 3 could have handled it, but why should they try to take that on? Just one more forcing of adulthood onto a child…18 is early enough in the developmental process. And yes, just at reading the headline, I too thought that 16 is even better cannon fodder than 18.
Just to note, the author is 27 – I would be interested to see how her opinion holds at 47 and a couple kids out the door….
FWIW, MR Bill usually looks in at TRex’s in the morning.