Turned a corner and got shot in the face

How many corners does a quagmire have?

Excellent Blue Texan, Excellent!

wont be surprised if it shows up replete with soundbytes on KO tonight -

yo lurking intern, nudge, nudge

I think they’ve pretty much taken enough corners to be in a vicious circle jerk.

Graham is an idiot. With luck, KO will rake him for it.

Ackerman just delivered a pretty good lecture to Crocker.

did he see the light at the end of the tunnel when he turned the corner?

To follow up on the other talking point killed yesterday (Crocker admitting that al Qaeda in Afghanistan/Pakistan is more dangerous than al Qaeda in Iraq), can we ask that troop levels in Iraq be dropped to the level we have in the more important front in Afghanistan?

Right now they’re taking care of the “wolves closest to the sled.” Gotta luv these military cliches.

That’s what always happens when I turn a corner.

P: We’re substituting our extremist ideology for al Qaeda’s.

If you keep turning corners, eventually you’re going around in circles.

“Wolves closest to the sled”? Really? Where’d they pick that one up from — Putin? that’s one of those 19th Century Russian images…sledge in the forest being chased by wolves….who do they throw out first to feed the wolves and let the other escape?

Yes, he really said that. As who to throw out to the wolves, I have a little list, but mods won’t let me post it.

I think I was EPU’d in a response to you last thread

You mean they were lying? Nah, probably not, they were just mistaken or those damn libruls gave them incorrect information.

who do they throw out first to feed the wolves and let the othe

r escape?

My money’s on Crocker. Look for him to be replaced by May 15, buying another Friedman Unit for the diplomatic surge.

So?

There’s no light at the end of the tunnel because there’s no tunnel. There’s only a very deep, very dark, cornerless pit.

Yes, I saw that. Thanks for it. Is there a good Dem running against this moron? Could be worth tossing a few coins that way on ActBlue.

Right - the only guy there who can speak the languages…who will they replace him with - that idiot Rep. who keeps playing that video from when he was in the Green Zone? Perfect.

How many corners does a quagmire have?

I always wind up here

Who is there to replace him? Any candidates?

LOL! One of the few ties I wear has that on it.

And even Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne couldn’t get us out with this lot running the show! ;^)

Who is there to replace him? Any candidates?

Ambassador Lyndsey Graham

I’d love to see Samatha Power with the job, but since it would be a Bush appointment, it does seem that Wolfowitz and Bolton are not in government presently.

using the word “front” implies that there are in faact two theatres in the same war. Not true. There’s Afghanistan, a front in a war we seem determined to lose against global AQ. Then we have Iraq.. a cynical attempt at Potemkin-style deception on the part of whatever passes for government in this country these days.

Who is there to replace him? Any candidates?

Jeb Bush is not that busy these days.

So let’s see, 5 corners. Looks like we’ve just started another trip around the block. No wonder it looks familiar.

There’s only a very deep, very dark, cornerless pit.

don’t mock the afflicted, I hear Mr Cheney is very high up on that list these days - and should receive a heart any day now :D

Potemkin. That’s a word that’s missing from the Qs.

Isn’t Macaca still kicking around.. unbelievably, he was there at McShrub’s celebratory speech during the VA primary. Perhaps they’ll turn to him if McShrub implodes.

Bolton, Wolfowitz, Jeb Bush. None of those guys would take the job because then they’d have to work instead of bloviate.

Here’s a map

HRC Questioning Petraeus

Clinton: “What conditions would have to exist for you to recommend to the president that the current strategy is not working? And it seems apparent that you have a conditions-based analysis, as you set forth in your testimony, but the conditions are unclear, they certainly lack specificity, and the decision points, with respect to these conditions, are also vague.

“So how are we to judge, General Petraeus, what the conditions are or should be and the actions that you and the administration would recommend pursuing based on them?”

What are the odds she knew she was asking questions he couldn’t answer
openly and honestly ?

Same with Biden, questioning Crocker, except he cracked under the pressure.

Safe posturing from HRC, bravado for a well televised hearing.

The sled with the wolves is on its way to the Potemkin Village, right?

Hey Bt telling it like it is!! The lies keep coming…. these rethuglians will never tell the truth about anything… we must pity them as they just don’t know any other way! POOR BASTARDS!
Digg it

Brilliant!

Sherman to P: Will you start your withdrawal plan on Nov 5 if a candidate favoring withdrawal wins?

P: I can only serve one boss at a time.

You can experience corner turning for yourself using Street View

This is my list of turning points in Iraq from my scandals list:

193. Selling the war: Part 2. Iraq the turning points. While enough for a hexadecagon, not enough to make a difference.

1. May 1, 2003 End of major combat operations announced on board the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln: Mission accomplished
2. July 22, 2003 Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusai killed
3. December 13, 2003 Saddam Hussein captured
4. March 8, 2004 Interim Constitution
5. June 28, 2004 Interim government formed/Sovereignty returned
6. November 2004 Second siege of Fallujah
7. January 30, 2005 First elections for transitional assembly
8. May 3, 2005 Transitional government formed
9. October 15, 2005 Vote on constitution
10. December 15, 2005 Elections for permanent assembly
11. April 22, 2006 Nuri al Maliki replaces interim PM Ibrahim Jaafari in forming a permanent government
12. May 20, 2006 Maliki presents permanent government: the key ministries of Defense, Interior, and National Security are left unfilled
13. June 7, 2006 Jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi killed; June 8, 2006 last ministries filled in permanent government (175 days after the elections)
14. December 30, 2006 Saddam Hussein executed by hanging
15. January 10, 2007 Bush announces his New Way Forward plan, aka the “surge”. Deployment of surge forces completed June 15, 2007. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and General David Petraeus claim progress is being made.
16. September 10-11, 2007 General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker testify before Congress and report the “surge” is working

Iraqi Jesus should be fired if he’s going to kill the Right’s talking points. What kind of a General is he, anyway, if he doesn’t listen to Fred Kagan, author of the Surge?

When will these Generals learn to clear their responses with Charles Krauthammer?

translation.. I like my job and I want to keep it for the 9 months…

I wonder if Petreaus is going to get in trouble with Rumsfeld Gates for making that remark…

Wowy, Rorhrabacher’s turning on Crocker. Is his district turning blue?

If he keeps going off the reservation like this, Petraeus will have plenty of time to spend on Wii golf, like he seems to already have.

I never did that before! thanks

(bowing to the crowd)

So, even if the questions are worth asking — and demanding answers to — you’d rather she’d have kept her mouth shut? Because Hillary Clinton asking legitimate questions that Petraeus refused to answer is a problem…why exactly?

Biden got an answer because Crocker cracked. Good for him. What are the odds that Biden asked those questions expecting them not to be answered, but was pleased that Crocker spilled on them? Should he have kept his mouth shut instead if he didn’t expect a direct answer — or weren’t his questions worth asking, too, especially since occasionally you do catch a fish with some good bait. If the questions aren’t asked at all by anyone, they never get that chance to crack the witnesses, now do they. But that’s Clinton’s fault, somehow?

I’m not getting your logical inference on this, other than you clearly weren’t happy that it was Clinton asking these questions — but they are ones that Petraeus ought to be pressured to answer in every hearing in which he appears because, eventually, he’ll slip some indication in on what he thinks.

I want someone to ask how many bullets it takes to kill one insurgent. IIRC, it’s something like 250,000.

Clinton: “What conditions would have to exist for you to recommend to the president that the current strategy is not working?

I am not a Clinton supporter but I thought she did a good job yesterday. That is a question well worth asking whether P&C duck it or not.

The other thing she pointed out was that the U.S. now has military responsibility for So. Iraq, a burden we have not had to shoulder previously. I think these twerps in congress should be all over that one.

Not really. He just thanked P for killing thousands of furrin terrists before they could kill us here.

Wexler up with his email Qs–5,000 submitted.

Rohr started scolding, lapdog in middle, then finished by scolding.

Wow! Wexler got 5000 questions submitted!

The opposite should be asked as well: “What conditions would have to exist for you to recommend that the current strategy has worked and that our troops could come home?”

I do wish everyone would stop asking Iraqi Jesus about “strategy” though — he’s a tactics guy. Strategy is set in the White House. It buffs Betrayus’ credentials to ask him about strategy.

Wexler!

o/t

Bilal Hussein has been freed from 2 years of US Military custody by an Iraqi Judicial Council under new amnesty laws

Probably just as well Petraeus hasn’t seen any light at the end of the tunnel. The way this maladministration runs things, that light would be the headlamps on the midnight fast freight. Followed by them blaming us for being on the tracks trying to fix the broken rails when it came through.

Wexler -

WHAT IS WINNING ?!?!?

“Clinton: “What conditions would have to exist for you to recommend to the president that the current strategy is not working?”

two problems here: the president doesn’t take recommendations, and there’s no integral strategy. There are just a collection of tactics, which change arbitrarily from day-to-day in response not to conditions on the ground in Iraq but rather to beltway politics and the boy king’s whims.

Did anyone catch Jim Webb’s curious statement to Tweety yesterday about something that is going to happen in the next week or two that will force the admin to take “tactile” action….Anybody know what he was talking about?

To which P is regurigitating W’s talking points.

the good congressman had just smacked him for same

Its a pretty safe thing for her to stand up and get all righteous
about, after all this time has passed.

It seemed more an attempt at point scoring for her candidacy than
an actual attempt criticize the war, or its ‘managers’ directly.

Canny maneuvering or not she is not a very credible critic given
her generally pro ‘war on terror’ stance.

Perhaps I should have genuflected before criticizing HRC.

Thanks for the fun, folks. Gotta run.

Even tho the Pentagon has five sides, it also has five rings (A -E) within: and I can guarantee you can keep going forever around any one of those rings.

At least where they are not blocked for “super classified” stuff.

I concede the point that any kind of questioning is better
than having talking points thrown at us.

No genuflection necessary — but Obama’s questions were fairly similar in nature yesterday — and McCain’s were abysmal. Perhaps you should be honest about your criticism of only HRC rather than pretending it’s all even-handed. Because, frankly, it was the non-candidates that distinguished themselves in the questioning yesterday (a point I made earlier).

Sara Taylor is a Republican strategist on MSNBC!!!

I like how Froomkin starts things off today in his column:

Well, it’s official. Getting out of Iraq is now exclusively the next president’s problem.

Breaking: Postal workers Union unanimously endorsed Obama … all HRC supporters should expect their mail 2 weeks later than usual … *g* Link

No genuflection necessary — but Obama’s questions were fairly similar in nature yesterday — and McCain’s were abysmal. Perhaps you should be honest about your criticism of only HRC rather than pretending it’s all even-handed.

Can we please go after McBush rather than feeding on each other? HRC’s questions were legit, as were Obamas.

Boxturtle (Hey St. John! Why not just read BushCo’s talking points into the record and go to lunch?)

ugh. That’s no fair. I better make sure everybody everybody has ben email address then…

McCain of course says he has nothing to worry about, since the Morse Code Union
has not endorsed any of his opponents …

((((( Christy )))))

Petraeus is unwilling to declare ANY milestones reached in Iraq because he knows he will be back in front of a Congressional committee in three months or six months, with no turning of any corners, and be reminded of his words.

They had the ever-putrid Babs Comstock on earlier as well. It’s a Rogues Gallery of GOP pundits on MSNBC lately…blergh.

That is assuming a level of competence and sophistication not present in my Chicago branch.

No kidding. Sometimes I watch the Sara Taylor video where Leahy grills her about her oath…and LMAO…

McCain of course says he has nothing to worry about, since the Morse Code Union
has not endorsed any of his opponents …

The, flag waving, Semaphore union has endorsed StMac however

It’s fascinating how these paid operatives of the GOP go on MSNBC to commentate upon the Democratic primary — “Obama should, Hillary shouldn’t” whatever — but you never really see anyone but the odious Larry O’Donnell on for the Democrats commentating about McCain. Well, Gene Robinson, but Gene works for the WaPo.

Why doesn’t MSNBC have Democratic operatives on to commentate about McCain?

we should have just devided the trillion dollars to peeps of Iraq,and not invaded…we are paying them anyway not to shoot at us……at least they would have electricity,running water,and a million of their men,woman,and children alive

MSGOP seems to revile Obama

Jack Welch said no?

cause he will bring home the bacon ,so to speak…for General Electric,Obama not so much

you beat me to the punch

I thought Bob Schrum has commentated on everybody by now!

oh, there turning coroners, alright.

But you don’t understand - then the money would not have lined the pockets of the cronies. We don’t care about people and their problems. Ours or theirs.

Same question Obama asked—good question in my opinion.

the birdies are chirping merrily here on this lovely spring day!

… getting slow in yer old age, eh ? *g*

BTW the Cushing spot price for crude is currently at $111.68. Wednesday is the day that the EIA (Energy Information Administration) comes out with its weekly figures. These show that oil stocks declined by 3.2 million bbls and gasoline by 3.4 million bbls last week. The decline in crude still leaves it midpoint in the average range for this time of year. And while gasoline inventories declined the big story was this week’s commentary:

During the first half of 2007, motor gasoline consumption was up by 0.9 percent compared with the same period the previous year. But, during the second half of 2007, gasoline consumption declined by 0.1 percent from the year before. In fact, fourth-quarter consumption fell by 0.4 percent. The drop in gasoline consumption, the first since the recession of 2000, should come as no surprise with the slowing economy and soaring gasoline prices.

The first quarter of 2008 continued to show an even sharper decline in consumption of 0.6 percent compared to the same period in 2007.

____________

In EIA’s April Short-Term Energy Outlook, motor gasoline consumption this summer (April through September) is projected to average 9.40 million barrels per day (bbl/d), down 0.4 percent from that of the previous summer. Adjusting for the reduced Btu content of the growing ethanol share of the motor gasoline pool, the year-to-year decline would be closer to 0.9 percent. Regular retail prices are projected to average $3.54 per gallon, up from $2.93 per gallon last summer.

Today’s spike in crude oil prices is another indication that this market is driven by speculation. The fundamentals as the EIA commentary shows are headed elsewhere.

Weren’t there any questions about Fallon? Wouldn’t have this have been a nice way of getting at what a “chickenshit” political general Petraeus is? No Democrat, except maybe Webb, wants to even try to undermine the credibility of the witness.

sadly yes….a few families have made great fortunes like Gen.Smedly Butler said in the 1930s

Five corners…

I was iempted to say leads you into a vivious circle.

But, It’s more of a nasty pentagon.

old age aint for sissies…..Betty Davis

Ron Paul’s up. Pass the popcorn.

The, flag waving, Semaphore union has endorsed StMac however

Og of the Hit big stone against nuther big stone Union comes out for McCain, says he always looked up to him as a kid.

If both a surge and a pause include bombing innocent civilians in Sadr city, what’s the difference?

tempted, vicious… Damn…

I do not consider Bob Shrum a Democratic operative, although I recognize that he does, as do others. That many losses must mean he is working for someone other than the Democrats.

Gas at $3.34 per AAA via MSNBC

WAR IS A RACKET

by Two-Time Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient

Major General Smedley D. Butler - USMC Retired

CHAPTER ONE

WAR IS A RACKET

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small ”inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

And what is this bill?

This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.

For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.

Go Ron!

LOL … she was one of the best … I remember the last time she went on Letterman, still puffing away and all …

http://houston.craigslist.org/pol/635640788.html

”Bakken” - Enough oil for 40 years easily
In the coming weeks, the U.S. Geological Survey will release a major study on the ’Bakken’ formation, in what’s being hailed as the most significant find since Alberta’s Pembina Cardium play in 1957.

It’s 5.3X the proven reserves of Exxon, Gazprom, Chevron and ConocoPhillips combined… Twice the size of Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar oil field…

When the U.S.G.S. study is released, the 3 companies already drilling there will explode -

In Richland County, Montana - about 470 miles outside the state capitol of Helena - America’s greatest wealth boom is fast - and secretly - underway.

To get right to the point… It’s the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil.”

ron paul making more sense than anyone else today.

and he asks a great question - does the president have the power to order the bombing iran without congressional approval?

Now you know why he has all those libertarian fans. Unfortunately, the rest of the libertarian program is nuts.

Should have asked P. if he would bomb Iran if ordered by the Preznit without congressional approval?

i went to her prep school ,way back when,and she was my first femminist idol “g”…big portrait in the study room

Sara Taylor doesn’t think anyone looks at John McCain and thinks he isn’t extremely knowledgable about foreign affairs. The American people understand that people misspeak.

My fav was Kate Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, then Bette Davis and she was a very strong individual indeed …

i for one want one of these

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/ec.....ction.html

very nuts.

Does this surprise you from a person who’s lucidly and consistently opposed the war?

One jeers his CRAZY ideas about the Federal Reserve less loudly in light of recent events, too.

umm.. isn’t half of Bakken in Canada? Or are we assuming that Canada can be conquered if push comes to shove?

to clarify - ron paul reminds me of some marxists i know. some of their analysis of what is wrong makes a lot of sense to me. but then they start explaining their solutions and they loose me.

At least Ron Paul didn’t shrink from that task. OTOH, he couldn’t even get a straight answer from either the general with all those stars or the ambassador about whether Congress needs to be consulted before any decision is made to bomb Iran. He said all he wanted was a straight no for an answer, since that’s what the Constitution says.