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Last September after the conclusion of the General Petreaus Show co-starring Toy-Wonder Chester Crocker we the people were told to be appropriate cowed in the presence of such heroes by David Broder and Richard Cohen, aka ‘America’s Concern Troll’.
And then the Decider decided to come on the airwaves and give his benediction, undoing whatever shinola had been purchased by the public in the two prior days.
More than a "Friedman Unit" (F.U.) later, the sequel has gone over pretty much like mange in the road company of ‘Cats‘. People are sick of the war and even more they are sick of Bush. Everyone realizes nothing is going to change while Bush lets young men die for the old man who will not ever change.
The death and destruction in Baghdad has begun moving upward the last three months, from the intolerable levels of recent months to the apocalyptic levels of early 2007. This has especially been true in the last two weeks. Since Sunday, 17 American soldiers have been killed, no one knows yet how many Iraqis — a lot of them innocent civilians, including children.
And yet, after all this, like before, today Bush is going to trot out and give yet another upbeat assessment about Iraq and proclaim it’s pure, unadulterated awesomeness. It’ll make Fred Kagan’s jowls quiver while trotting out the poor tired corpse of Neville Chamberlain again, the eternal straw man of war whores.
And here is the latest Ponzi Scheme, Bush will announce the elimination of 15-month tours for soldiers…
BUT:
Officials said the reduced tour length will not apply to any soldiers currently serving in Iraq, Afghanistan or other war zones
January 20, 2009 cannot come soon enough.
*woah! (it won’t have a movie ending)
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Now that’s what I call some fine print!
No sane manager would continue to invest in this war with no timeframe for victory and better alternatives available.
Go to Africa and save thousands more people for one tenth of the price!
Good Morning Attaturk and thanks!
Nice of Georgie to eliminate the 15 month tour for soldiers, too bad it doesn’t apply to the soldiers actually there. Show’s what a thoughtful, caring man he is.
…
Crocker Petraeus press conference at 9:00 am on CSPAN 3.
And here’s what’s on Washington Journal this morning:
7:00 am – Newspaper Articles & Viewer Calls
7:30 am – Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) 13th District, Armed Services Committee Member
8:00 am – Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) 1st District, Armed Services Committee Member
8:30 am – Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-MD)
9:00 am – Fmr. Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), 1995-2003
9:30 am – Newspaper Articles & Viewer Calls
LINK to submit questions for the guests
Call-In Numbers
Support Democrats:
(202) 737-0002
Support Republicans:
(202) 737-0001
Support Independents:
(202) 628-0205
Outside U.S.:
(202) 628-0184
out the door, see you pups later…
couple of things before I head out
first, think progress has a piece up that claims powell ok’d the torture of our prisoners
though I have been disapointed in the man for his failure standing up to this president, it is not easy for me to believe he gave his ok on toruring those we gathered in our occupation
I would like to see his defense of the nbc piece think prgress is linking to right now
the other thing is move on has an incredible youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..gress.org/
100 year war, 6 months at a time
this should make a very nice campaign peice for either candidate and I hope one or both of them adopt it, have a look
Good morning, pups. It’s Collins, Cohen and Kristof in the NYT today. La Collins’ column is titled “Pinochle Politics,” and she says it might be a good idea for all three presidential candidates to disavow in advance anything stupid a supporter, adviser or a staffer says for the rest of this year. (Maybe St. McCain should apologize up front for all his future mixing up of Sunni and Shi’ite…) Mr. Cohen writes about “Asia’s Republican Leanings,” and says China, India and Japan have all had reasons to view President Bush with favor, and all have nagging fears about a Democratic administration. Mr. Kristof has a “Memo to Bush on Darfur,” and says this week marks the 14th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. If President Bush wants to end his shameful passivity, he should take some concrete steps. I’m not going to hold my breath…
http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/
The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and the biscuits are out of the oven. There’s also some nice, crispy bacon so you can make yourself a bacon biscuit should the mood hit you. I’m having one of those with a second cup of tea. Have a great day.
here’s the link from raw story
the only surprise in there is powel, I think someone needs to ask him or his chief of staff directly the accuracy of this point
12 months but not if you are currently serving in Iraq War zone!
Catch 22 ,yup ,that’s the best catch we have.
ABC News accuses Rice, Ashcroft, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, and Tenet of conspiring to commit war crimes: http://www.youtube.com/v/-5UyCQp-IM0&hl=en
let me take that back, while I am surprised and disapointed in powell, I am also surprised in tenet
shows, how bad my estimate of men
Amazing, I just cannot imagine the troops getting fucked. How could that possibly be, we should write some letters.
I hope D.C. is full of signs along the route to the Capitol and swearing in of our new President. Chimpy will be riding with Obama or Clinton, and Commander Guy will try not to look, but weary Americans can craft some eye-catching-soul-refreshers. “Is our war criminals learning?” comes to mind.
I hope that bells will ring all over the Land at the moment the new President is sworn in.
Good morning all. Perris I am surprised you are surprised about powell he is a sycophant, a snivelling, lying ass kissing prick….the same as all the people at the WH.. He knew perfectly well that there were no MWD, he knew damn well that the aluminium tubes and yellow cake stories were bullshit but he was happy to go along with them as long as it was good for him.
It’s pretty obvious that these thugs are trying to kick this down the road and dump it on the next likely dem administration and congress.
While they will get us out, it will will be a disaster and the real horrors will be even more obvious. I don’t know that the dems will be blamed for this entirely, but many enabled it for 8 years without screaming bloody murder.
It will be interesting to see is they can turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse. It will be also interesting to see when the shit hits the fan if they try to pin this on the last administration and have some intense accountability moments. At least the real heat would be directed at the criminals of this administration. I sure hope they are not immune from prosecution in this country. A bunch of congressional hearings with apologies won’t cut it for me.
We’ve past thru a period of real criminal behavior both nationally and internationally by these thugs. We can’t move on without settling this up.
No he should be riding in a prison wagon
Powell says he can’t specifically recall authorizing torture? I find that
almostimpossible to believe.I’d certainly vote for a prison wagon, but it will take a while to lock him up, and in the meantime, we can have fun.
Rotten tomato(e)s (if the mods let it go!)
That’s because you are a sane, honest person, Marion. Powell thinks he can still get away with crap like that.
And when Chimpy drives to Andrews to fly home, maybe the people can line the streets armed with Truth or Consequences buzzers and stick their tongues out at the Decider. More signs and bronx cheers would be in order.
Coming soon to a theater near Yoo:
John Ashcroft starring as Mr. Gravitas.
Who would have thunk it?
I presume that he’ll be taken into custody at the end of the ceremony.
Nope. Edwards withdrew from the race.
LOL, Allan!
Good morning.
I see there’s some day dreaming going on his this morning.
Re: Powell, there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to get ahead.
Tenet? Never ever had the patina of independence. Always wanted to come across as the hale fellow, well met, so he’d go along with everything W wanted.
Two quick points:
1) If they change the deployment rules soon enough, can’t someone be deployed and return before someone else who is already there? Sounds like a serious bummer!
2) I’ll just be glad when the whole bush thing is over. I keep having these nightmares about “terrorist attacks” requiring “marshal law” and “postponing” the election. After all the other crap this administration has pulled, I can’t quite dismiss this (or other similar) scenario(s)…
We had a coup, but a bunch of power hungry right wing ideologues who came to power by promising the MIC some big time sweet honey, finishing the job in the ME so that the DOD could have its image of invincibility restored and our boys could grasp control of the world’s oil market from OPEC, blow out Israel’s enemies, use all the high tech military hardware we has spend billions on and needed to be battle tested and of course replaced with more and newer. They exploited the religious right for their support of hegemony of Christianity over Islam, traded on racism, and the notion of patriotism and vengeance to drag the people to do their bidding, and massaged the corporate media to sell the war and make oodles of money doing it. Along they way they trashed our constitution, our system of checks and balances and rendered the congress and the justice system largely ineffective at preventing the nightmare which was their right wing agenda.
And to pay for all of these excessive they borrowed from the future generations, while ignore virtually all the human needs of our people, in NOLA, for health care, for infrastructure maintenance, for a sane environmental and energy policy, so that business could continue to make insane profits and Wall street could create all sorts of new ponzi schemes to transfer more wealth from the people to the uber rich.
It was a right wing coup alright and it was accomplished using all the tricks that worked in the past – fear of foreign invasion, trust in the wisdom and intention of the executive branch, and the mantra that private industry solves all problems better than government. We spied on our people, we tortured others, we rendered (anyone) to instill fear that you don’t mess around with Uncle Sam.
W squandered any good will the world had for the USA brand, including the support after 911. anthrax and Katrina events. We used the UN when we wanted to attack a sovereign country, bribed other nations to come along (or else), but trashed or ignored the UN when it sanctioned our actions.
W sent the US and the world economy into recession, heading for depression, while the uber rich multiplied the wealth.
Regime change will not come too soon in the country, but it may be too late to fix everything that these SOBs have done.
it’s only the senate appropriations committee, but hope someone asks mukasey today when the doj is going to start an investigation wrt the abc report.
No comment from Powell’s spokespeople. I suppose I will wait to see what Powell’s response is but I tend to think he caved in on this just as he did on all else. I’ve had no use for Powell after reading he accepted a Jaguar gift from Prince Bandar just days after leaving his position. It’s all so cozy & fuzzy warm in those circles.
i’d like all of them to get the chance to respond to the charges – but i’d like it to be under oath, because they all have a history of lying.
… and i just don’t see why powell wouldn’t go along. that’s what he’s always done (as far as i can see).
Let me see if I’ve got this straight: All non-combat tours of duty will be reduced from 15 months to 12 months. So the military will be able to send soldier currently stationed in Germany more readily to Iraq or Afghanistan where he can be stop-lossed indefinitely. Such a deal. What a lovely administration. Always looking out for the troops.
Including the support and financing of the DLC in order to take over the Dem party with, of course, the support of the power hungry clintons now manifesting itself with the “off the table” stance of whacky nancy and the “promotion” of Mccain over obama by clinton2
Apparently there is squabbling among 2 camps over McCain’s foreign policy. The name Kissinger crops up…
In the video of ABC’s report http://www.youtube.com/v/-5UyCQp-IM0&hl=en Powell is quoted as saying through spokesmen that there were hundreds of meetings of the NSC principals. He doesn’t remember these particular meetings, and if he did, he’d not be at liberty to discuss them.
pictures and reports from yesterday’s olympic torch protest
WOW! McCain’s foreign policy team:
wigwam@33:
Well OK then. With hundreds of meetings it really is understandable one would forget a few on torture.
Especially the part about the thumbscrews.
Mornin’ all!
FWIW, one of the co-authors of the “Three Trillion-Dollar War,” economist Joe Stiglitz is coming up in the next segment on CNBC.
allan@37:
Heh.
Thank you for the picshure up top, Attaturk.
It’s time for that to be seen by the whole world.
Both Jack Balkin and Marty Lederman think that prosecution of the Bushies is unlikely:
– http://balkin.blogspot.com/200…..am-on.html
– http://balkin.blogspot.com/200…..uting.html
Per Balkin:
I’m very disappointed, actually disgusted, but I think Jack and Marty are correct.
So, what I think should and will happen is that the top people in the Bush administration will be tried and convicted in absentia outside the U.S., and from then on they’ll not dare set foot in any country that extradites to the places where they’ve been convicted, i.e., most of the rest of the world.
the answer us they wouldn’t be spending political capitol they’d be gathering it
they would be marked among the greatest presidents ever to serve
the very question begs the question
Lord yes why would they do the right thing over the political thing after all it is not the ‘mercun way. Merca bombs the shit out of countries, murders millions of people, tortures people, stands by and watches hell in Darfur but will not lift one bloody finger to bring the murderers to account. Yep it is the mercun way.
I completely agree, but I doubt you could convince Obama or Clinton or their advisors of that. (I hope, however, that I’m wrong, and I promise that I’ll everthing I can to make that prediction wrong.)
I am very disappointed and disgusted too.
Kissenger is still … traveling. Rumsfeld owns Mount Misery.
We’re doomed as a nation if Balkin’s notion is true.
Marines only do 7 months as it is.
ot – Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation May Join Yahoo Bid With Microsoft
ah, Kissinger, ah, sorry.
Everything is doomed always.
For another view on this "squabbling" see Hothead McCain by Richard Dryfuss in March 24 issue of The Nation.
To go even farther back see McCain’s Vietnam that Dryfuss wrote during the 2000 primary campaign of McCain and he sees McCain this way
Dryfuss cites McCains view that with the proper use of unleashed American airpower the Vietnam war could have been won and also many instances over the years where he has advocated an aggressive military posture. The New York Times article McCain’s foreign policy stresses some of McCain’s past opposition to military actions, but the new Dryfuss article Hothead McCain says this about the evolution of McCains’s views
Errr Ummmm. That’s Robert Dryfuss. Richard is the actor.
1,808 DAYZ AND THWE kILLIN’GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen perris:
I think that Obama will run somethin’ akin ta the “Peace and Reconcilliation” process that they had in South Africa. That’s more like Obama’s style and I think that a special investigator may be charged with issuin reports on specific areas in coordination with the Rocconcilliation Commission.
I think thaqt Obama will try and get the story out but not bog the process down with criminal investigations and prosecutions unless it’s engineered from the Congress.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION…LET’S GET RID OF THE BASTARDS FIRST!!
Smart men, both of them, though!
Neocons and PNACians be gone!
poof.
1,808 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Raven:
Quoth the Raven, “Everthng is doomed.”
Hang in there Brother Raven, things are gunna get worse before they get any better.
KEEP THE FAITH AND DON’T LET THE BASTARDS INTO YER YARD!!
Wow! There’s reason to be pessimistic, but it gets you no place. Those who criticize Powell for “going along” go along themselves as do I. We don’t do anything but bitch about the powers that be because at this point in time there’s nothing we can do. Jane got about fifty thousand signatures to protest McCain’s abuse of election spending laws. That’s fairly small potatoes in a country of 300 million. Fifty million signatures would be better. How might we manage that?
Good Morning Attaturk and Firedogs -
Powell and My Lai – Initally there were 2 independently written letters sent to superiors about the massacre – the 1st, written by Tom Glen was sent to Gen Abrams – this letter was not just about the village but overall counterproductive treatment of locals by US Forces, using My Lai as the most egregious example -Powell was assigned there and was charged with investigating -
he dismissed it with
“In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent.”
a second letter written by Ridenhour (a year after the crime) was initially ignored by all its recipients save Congressman Mo Udall – this eventually led to the trials of Calley and Medina
however . . .Powell admits to war crimes in ‘My American Journey ‘-
there ya go – ‘ok to kill unarmed civilians ’cause a buddy of mine was killed ‘
Is our Representatives impeaching yet?
This reduction in tour length is a sop before the elections. And, I suppose, an effort to entice more souls to enlist.
Criminal administration. Enabling congress.
Blast from the past.
Bush in January 2007:
MR. LEHRER: Is there a little bit of a broken egg problem here, Mr. President, that there is instability and there is violence in Iraq – sectarian violence, Iraqis killing other Iraqis, and now the United States helped create the broken egg and now says, okay, Iraqis, it’s your problem. You put the egg back together, and if you don’t do it quickly and you don’t do it well, then we’ll get the hell out.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah, you know, that’s an interesting question. I don’t quite view it as the broken egg; I view it as the cracked egg –
MR. LEHRER: Cracked egg?
PRESIDENT BUSH: — that – where we still have a chance to move beyond the broken egg. And I thought long and hard about the decision, Jim.
Put nothing past any of those people, including Powell. He puts on a big show about how he resisted the administration on this or that, but at the end of the day he was with them the whole way. I wouldn’t be surprised at all about Tenet, after that 60 Minutes interview where he came off like a raging juvenile. The way he talked about how he wanted to respond to 9/11 was simple-minded vengeance, not the clear tactical mind required for a top leader in the intelligence community. These people are criminals and idiots, plain and simple.
I haven’t been so impressed by such sideshow gimmicks since I was nine. Who thinks up these sleight-of-hand-as-NEW-policy gimmicks?