Jus Cogens!

I hope the fall provincial campaigns in iraq are run as a referendum on US presence in Iraq. Polls indicate that the electorate wants us out. look for the Republican election team to make a trip to Iraq to make the Mugabi election look like a third grade popularity contest

I guess McCain’s “Victory Savings” will kick-in sooner than he planned.

Iraqis inviting Clusterfuck ta get the fuck outta the country…I like it! Probably won’t stick to their guns- but still I like it.

If al-Maliki gets his way with this it’s going to be the biggest policy failure in the history of this country. No way that the 1600 Crew is gonna allow this… and, I’ll bet dollars to donuts al-Maliki got an email from the Irani government pushing him to go for this.

Watching the death spiral of the 1600 Crew over this if it becomes a reality will be fascinating, they can’t have him “going rogue” without the specter of helicopters on the roof of an American Embassy again as the exhausted troops shuffle off to waiting transports back to “the World” . I want someone to ask Dana Peroxide about it at the press availability today…

Gee, that repubble dude just cain’t win fer losin’.

Go home John. You’re sooo over.

Nice BT!

I called feinstein’s office in LA cause the DC one has vmail.
The nice young fellow said the Senator has not announced her position but would listen to what constituents say and take their opinion into consideration.
you can find her district phoners on her website.
they answer the fones in the offices in LA, SD, Fresno and SF unlike DC.
I asked her to oppose telco immunity, defend the 4th amendment, not enable Gooper lawbreaking, support the filibuster, oppose cloture, and stand up for the rule of law as Dems did during watergate and at the Church hearings.
(I would love to post this at Act Blue–but there doesnt seem to be a mechanism unless you use the phone tool–which puts you in DC vmail.)

Malaki is forced to get tough with Clusterfuck for the purpose of the upcoming elections (theirs). Pure political posturing I imagine.

I look forward to McSame denouncing al-Maliki’s defeatism.

ya see john. ya just had ta be there WITHOUT the vest fest, ta’ unnerstand.

egad! i can hear shooter from here.

“Well go find someone who can and shove him in front of the camera STAT!”

McCain may see it as a white flag of surrender, but to al-Maliki and everyone else, it’s more like the white flag at the end of a car race: “One lap left, everyone . . .”

the only people who haven’t been purely posturing in this whole sorry episode are those poor souls who got caught in the line of fire between the axes of greed.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told President Bush on April 9, 2008 that Iraqi security forces are capable of their duties and U.S. troops should be pulled out as the situation allows.[203] In May 2007, Bush said, “We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a constitution. It’s their government’s choice. If they were to say, leave, we would leave.”[204]

wiki

I want someone to ask Dana Peroxide about it at the press availability today…

Might happen, but I wouldn’t bet anything large on it.

I’m savin’ the big money for a bet that this doesn’t make the national news tonight on any of The Big Three….

very good. i’m gonna stick with you.

Yeah, I loved that. “We must fight them over there to ensure they don’t kill us over here, but if Iraq says leave, we’ll leave, and await our certain deaths.”

I believe that was Duncan’s take at the time.

great info. thanks. they can run but they can’t hide, heh.

kudos!

One can imagine what the Arab news channels are going to do with this statement by the Pentagon; it -the statement- effectively ups the pressure on Al-Maliki internally; the U.S. would ’cut him loose’ if they had anyone else to turn to ….but they don’t.

But why would someone go to the Pentagon for a response instead of Rice/the State Dept.; isn’t THAT an interesting question.(rhetorical of course)

isn’t she about 3 statements ahead of herself at last count, all on the wrong side of the issue?

D’OH!

Why would you ask ANYONE in this admin for a response when you know they will just lie?

It is interesting. McSame is going to have a hard time dodging this one, though. It’s pretty hard to say that the Prime Minister of the country you’re occupying doesn’t understand the security situation in his own country.

a lot of people are gonna have a hard time dodging it.

They just can’t admit that they lost this war……

But why would someone go to the Pentagon for a response instead of Rice/the State Dept.; isn’t THAT an interesting question.(rhetorical of course)

The last time I saw anyone question Condi about anything was this past weekend, when she was a guest in the teevee booth at a pro golf tournament.

I think it’s nice that her job doesn’t get in the way too much for her to do (pretty much only) other things.

For the record, Ms. Rice said that she’s been working on her game, and that her handicap is presently at 21.

“”But timelines tend to be artificial in nature,” he said. “In a situation where things are as dynamic as they are in Iraq, I would just tell you, it’s usually best to look at these things based on conditions on the ground.”

(My disrespectful editing of the Pentagon’s comments)…

So….is 1/20/09 one of those “artificial” timelines that will be determined by conditions on the ground over here?

So long as Congress has the FED to create money for them, they’ll borrow and spend the money.

OTOH if we close the FED, and allow government to control the money supply,
Congress must balance money supply to meet the needs of a healthy economy.

Government interest payments will be eliminated, and no more boom and bust business cycles.

He’ll say that anyways. Because as everyone knows, John McCain is really a clone of Clauswitz, Sun Tsu, Patton, the Red Baron, and Rambo. Nobody knows more about matters of war and national security than John McCain.

Golf courses should be turned into public parks and low income housing.

From my cold dead hands- and only after takin out a raft of invaders with my five iron.

Off Topic:

Attention Firepups!

Netroots Nation is in Austin this year and the Central Texas Firepups would like to offer a bit of our southern hospitality to those of y’all not fortunate enough to be with us year round. *cough*

At least two of us have sofa beds, guest beds and/or kids’ bunk beds available for firepup use, and anyone still in Austin on Sunday the 20th is invited to swim with us and/or have guided tours of our area. Wangdangdoodle, who won’t be attending the conference itself, wants to hang out with visiting pups in the evenings during the conference.

Airport rides might be possible.

For more info on any of this, contact Tex Betsy at g mail. Please include your FDL screen name.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.

OT, but has anyone heard anything about this:

“In Washington, Congress, under intense pressure from the Israel lobby, is about to adopt a resolution calling for a naval blockade of Iran, an overt act of war.”

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/15690

“The Pentagon tells al-Maliki to go to hell”

Of course in Cheneyspeak that would be, “Iraq, go fuck yourself.”

Chimpy was rebuffed by the Poles for the missile base. So now he’s gonna put the screws to Lithuania to see if they want to be targeted by the might of the Russian missile arsenal.

-G

Tail wagging the dog. We must not do this.

The Pentagon tells al-Maliki to go to hell. We gotcher sovereignty right here, pal.

Didn’t anyone tell Maliki what the Bush definition of sovereignty is? “You always do what I tell you to and say that’s what you wanted to do anyway.”

The ‘Security Pact’ which includes a ‘timetable’ is to replace the UN MANDATE (which ‘permits’ the U.S. ‘presence’ in Irak) expires in December of this year.

The pact also includes, supposedly, no further ‘protections’ for U.S. contractors, such as Blackwater.

We shall see …

“Asked about the prime minister’s comments, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters: ‘With respect to timetables I would say the same thing I would say as respects to the security situation — it is dependent on conditions on the ground.’”

What is the military doing making comments on the political situation in Iraq? Where the hell is the State Department? Oh, right.

Remember Condi is playing golf. So don’t bother her with details like this.

Resolutions are making their way through Congress as we speak…but nobody really cares. It should be plastered all over everywhere 24/7…but nah…

*crickets*..

I thought shoe buying was today’s agenda.

Unless she’s buying curtains for the new offices in Tehran, right?

Maybe she’s buying golf shoes.

I am sick to death of Congress constantly bowing to the will and swill of The Lobby.

Seems that it is only on this “issue” that they have a bipartisan and collective spine.

It is dangerous.

better than helping to start more wars.

The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations in the fight against Islamic extremists for reducing the deficit. Since all their costs were financed with deficit spending, all their savings must go to deficit reduction.

haven’t read the comments yet but to call this idiotic would be to lower the intelligence of idiot.

so, we will fund repayng the deficit by not spening on the the things that only helped to drive the deficit

what kind of moron is this man?

this is like saying;

I bought this house which has added to the deby I created before I bought the house, I have payments because of the house which contributed to the debt I aquired before I bought the house

so, by giving the house away, getting no assets in return for the house, this will devine me a positive cash flow that will pay down the debt I created by spending more money then ever before on a war, getting absolutely nothing back from that war, yet it will fund debt reduction

man, it would be impossible to make this up, if they did it on saturday night live it would flop as a skit for being just too assinine

sorry, that post goes on ians thread, my opoligies please feel free to delete

What, Condi can’t multitask? Start wars & shop at the same time?

Perris
at least you can understand it enough to discuss it – I can’t even get that far. McC is nuts.

repeat from saturday:

re iran: H.CON.RES 362 (introduced by ackerman) now has 220 cosponsors and S.RES.580 (introduced by bayh) has 32.

introduced by democrats, supported by democrats.

i can see a text message: Strt bombing in 10. Wait, just saw pr. jimmy choos, hold on…

Nah..she’s probably using Zappos and has ‘em delivered 2 dozen at a time.

i hope not.

Black bean burritos are thawed and on the menu for dinner!

Elizabeth Edwards is on CSPAN3 and just mentioned Jane Hamsher.

That and a salad and you can feel morally superior for at least 24 hours.

Yep – I’m sure she’s got “world peace” slotted into her blackberry between 2 and 3 p.m.

Salad’s left over from yesterday: Belgian endive, watercress, celery. But you omit all the wine that will accompany dinner, which removes all vestiges of moral superiority.

just a drive-by to say ”fuck mccain, bush, cheney and their whole coterie of evil-doers” …

tearing hair out and gnashing teeth here!

Whose National Security do they care about anyway???????

Syria Accountability Act, the resolution that designates the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, the resolution allowing the bombing of Lebanon to continue, etc ad nauseum.

WAY WAY WAY OT —-

What does it mean when the keys on a keyboard start squeaking while you type? And is there a way to fix it?

(Keyboard, like the rest of the computer is 6 yrs old and resides in the bedroom of the teen.)

Perhaps there’s a “mouse” in your keyboard?

OT Watching McCain is getting more and more difficult for me. I know this is petty and ageist, but he just seems so old, shoulders slumped and back in a hump. It’s distracting.

I think a few questions that need to be asked of any Congresscriminal (besides those about FISA and whether the Constitution allows the President to collude with corporations to cover up criminal wrongdoing) is, “Is Israel the 51st state? Is the US Capitol in DC or in Tel Aviv? When did the interests of Israel become THE leading interests of the US? Why are you letting Israel dictate what our foreign policy is?”

Fresh First Monday discussion post up top — drop in and say hello to Dahlia Lithwick of Slate. Thanks, gang!

i have nothing useful to say. :(

Just in case anyone thought President Forked Tongue might of misspoke. He went on to elaborate in the same interview:

From May 24, 2007 Press Conference at the White House:

THE PRESIDENT: We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a constitution. It’s their government’s choice. If they were to say, leave, we would leave.

Q — catastrophic, as you’ve said over and over again?

THE PRESIDENT: I would hope that they would recognize that the results would be catastrophic. This is a sovereign nation, Martha. We are there at their request. And hopefully the Iraqi government would be wise enough to recognize that without coalition troops, the U.S. troops, that they would endanger their very existence. And it’s why we work very closely with them, to make sure that the realities are such that they wouldn’t make that request — but if they were to make the request, we wouldn’t be there.

And it’s why we work very closely with them, to make sure that the realities are such that they wouldn’t make that request…

That is just astounding, and at the same time, not the least bit surprising.