I’m voting no on this bill. I’m tired of the false choices of Republicans and all the recycled spin of old battles and the political calculations that do nothing for our troops who bear the real costs of this war. Bottom line: we support the troops by getting the policy right, and this bill doesn’t do that.New massacre? Grim signs indicate that the Americans plan to do to Sadr City what they did to Fallujah. See here. Remember, the clearing of Fallujah (a city of 400,000) meant that "whiskey pete" was used on anyone who stayed behind. Sadr City is a city of two million whose impoverished residents have no place to go. Most of the actual fighters will leave (as at Fallujah), so what's the damned point?
Polls: We confront the continuing dichotomy. Dems beat Republicans on all issues, according to the latest Rasmussen polls. Opposition to the war is now at or over 70%. Yet only Obama is leading his Republican counterparts, and that, just barely. Yes, Republican media control and the politics of character assassination really are that effective. You can't say the name "John Edwards" to anyone these days without hearing the Pavlovian response "haircut."
Dope: Just south of Baghdad, the Iraqis have stopped growing rice and have started growing poppies. Do not think for one second that this could happen without the compliance of certain Americans. Those fields could be bombed within the hour. Somebody's getting his cut.
Drug: When Dubya complains that the Justice Department probe is being "drug out," doesn't he sound like a guy with expert knowledge of things that are drugged out?
UPDATE: Dick vs. Dubya!!! Steve Clemons just published the most amazing damned piece. Everyone's going to be talking about it, so we should too.This White House official has stated to several Washington insiders that Cheney is planning to deploy an "end run strategy" around the President if he and his team lose the policy argument.
The thinking on Cheney's team is to collude with Israel, nudging Israel at some key moment in the ongoing standoff between Iran's nuclear activities and international frustration over this to mount a small-scale conventional strike against Natanz using cruise missiles (i.e., not ballistic missiles).
According to this official, Cheney believes that Bush can not be counted on to make the "right decision" when it comes to dealing with Iran and thus Cheney believes that he must tie the President's hands.While writing this update, I happened to be listening to a raucous section of The Rite of Spring. Really appropriate, lemme tell ya.
On Tuesday evening, i spoke with a former top national intelligence official in this Bush administration who told me that what I was investigating and planned to report on regarding Cheney and the commentary of his aide was "potentially criminal insubordination" against the President.
Clemons' scoop should be read in conjunction with the piece below on the neocon plot-a-rama in the Caribbean.
5 comments:
Jesus, JOSEPH and Mary!
Why do you persist in INACCURATE gloom about the state of polling for Democrats?
First, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_
polling_for_the_United_States_
presidential_election%2C_2008
provides the MINIMUM context for such polls, which is a compendium of the polling results over time. (Many of which show both Hillary and Edwards ahead of both McCain and Rudy).
But the (Zogby) poll you cite DOES show both Hillary and Edwards ahead of Romney and Thompson (while your language appears to say they trail all the GOP candidates).
sofla
First, gloom is a virtue for prognisticators. The glass is neither half-empty or half-full; it is nearly empty and the water in it was poisoned and drought is inevitable and planetoids are going to strike the Earth and Satanists are raping and killing your every living relative as we speak. Just train yourself to think THAT way, every moment of every day, and all your surprises will be happy ones.
Second, the wiki piece you referenced is not there. I presume it was censored by the Satanic rapists. The BASTARDS.
Third, you are right that I should have mentioned that Edwards and Clinton nose out Romney and Thompson (who isn't even officially in it yet). But that doesn't affect my larger point.
My larger point is -- this should not even be a contest. Mike Gravel should be beating the pants of every Republican.
My other larger point is, this should be about issues, because on issues we win. But races are about people, and the Republicans always win there.
Romney, McCain, and Giuliani all conjure up immediate impressions of TOUGHNESS. And voters, most of whom think America is on the wrong track, react positively to that "I won't f*ck around" aura.
Now consider Hillary, Barack, and John (with his pricey coif). Do any of them emanate TOUGHNESS? Don't make me laugh. Hell, it's hard to be sure what any of them even believe in.
That the Republican toughness is actually the demagogic mouthing off of bullies is an extraneous fact. The leading Republicans sound confident, which on a gut level is reassuring to voters.
When Hillary discovers she believes in the Constitution, and Barack discovers that charisma does not rule out backbone, and John discovers that there are other facial expressions besides grinning...
Oh, I'm wishful thinking again.
A working link to the wiki piece is perhaps more accurately written in the DU piece to which you link as the above 'Obama' hyperlink, in a comment or two down from the top (which see; it worked when I clicked it this am).
I view both McCain and Giuliani as candidacies in or about to be in free fall, although only John is showing much signs of that at this point. Clear enough about Rudy, however, is the haymaker blow that Dr. Dobson's anti-Rudy position this past week lays on America's ex-mayor's chin (no support under any circumstances, ever), and already, the bloom is off Rudy, to a degree sufficient to be driving his numbers southwards.
As Bob Somerby's DailyHowler lays out, the lost millionaire boys of Jack Welch are already loading up heroic encomiums for Fred Thompson, even as they continue to slander the Dem side. Apparently, the starting team on the GOP side has been shaky, and they're considering sending in the bench.
sofla
(Sadr City) "Most of the actual fighters will leave (as at Fallujah), so what's the damned point?"
The point will be, as it has been in the past, Ethnic Cleansing.
Known in some circles as "Global Cleanse 2000".
Post a Comment