Tuesday Open Thread
What's happening in the world today?
Comments (150) «
We need backup, Canadians tell NATO allies
Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Latvia on Tuesday for a NATO summit in which one of his tasks is to press other alliance members to take their share of the risks in Afghanistan.
Full story:
Iraq 'on the brink of civil war'
Iraq is teetering on the brink of civil war, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said publicly. Full story:
Baghdad hospital blasts kill four
Two car bombs outside one of Baghdad's main hospitals have killed four people and injured at least seven others, Iraqi security officials say. Full story . . .
Five girls killed in Iraqi clash
Five young girls have been killed in Iraq during a clash between US marines and insurgents in the western city of Ramadi, the US has said.
Full story . . .
ImpeachPAC
Electing a Congress to Impeach Bush and Cheney
Contrary to Previous Reports, Cheney Was ‘Basically Summoned’ By Saudi Crown Prince
"Last 'Great' Superpower", indeed; this spineless War Profiteering pussy kowtows to his Masters. As long as Bushco is making Billions, everything is A-OK.
Whew! I guess this is much more than the touch base place that I thought. I was a little too worried about the blog - kind of like it's our mother ship, huh?
{{{Cyn}}} it's amazing how connected we have all become when you consider the miles between us. :)
{{{Kristen}}}, I guess you're right. Although I don't post as much as I used to, this is HOME and where I check in from time to time. Actually, a little more than I realized!
How goes the West Coast and the little one?
Cyn, we have been paddling around in record rain and yesterday we were hit with a deep freeze so all in all it's been wet! :)
The little guy is great. I worked from home today with him and I have to say juggling both should be a circus side show. :)
Hope all are well there!
DPD, very interesting post. I figured that something was up. All of a sudden they let Cheney out of the bunker? And, yes, we've made an absolute mess of the place.
Now that I know all of my Dem friends are safe and sound, I'm off to cook some super supper.
Later.
Kristen, I've seen your weather reports. Bless you, girl, for living in the monsoon portion of the USA!
Weather here is a balmy 50 degrees - which is very freaky. Not that it doesn't happen from time to time, but our weather has really changed. This weekend calls for winter weather -we shall see.
How wonderful that you can work from home. Kids drive us nuts but end up being the force that drives us.
See ya' all tomorrow.
Well, Cyn, I know you aren't here now, but the Saudis have been propping up WAY TOO MUCH of "Our" Debt, thanks to the Little Crack-Head Prince, and HIS ego trip. If the Chinese side with Iran (which looks likely), and the petro-Dollars get transferred to Euros, not only is the U. S. of A. screwed, but also the Bush Crime Family's banking and money laundering partners. The House of Saud is almost as dirty as the Family of Bush.
Dicky has gotten himself into a real pickle, and ALL that free oil is going the way of the buggy whip.
Good evening, everyone.
Glad to see we are back up and running. Thanks, Tracy and all the staff, for working all day on the bugs.
David Gergan on Hardball today was obviously shaken and upset about the Middle Eastern situation. He repeated again the Jordanian King's warning of a larger regional conflict blowing up into three festering civil wars if steps are not taken to ease the situation in Iraq.
And he said the Saudis had "summoned" Vice President Cheney to their country...he did not request the meeting nor was he invited as a guest. The other pundit on the panel said there was something else on the Saudi agenda besides the various conflicts in the region, but she had not been able to find out what it was yet. I'm almost afraid to think what it might be.
With Bush defiantly dismissing any diplomacy with Iran and Syria right before his summit with the Iraqi Prime Minister and blaming all the violence on Al Qaeda again, it seems our military is truly screwed. The head of all branches of our armed forces have come out publicly in the last month and said we are at the breaking point. Why do Bush and Cheney refuse to listen to them?
And any recommendations that would have come from the Baker study group have now been blown out of the water with the President's stubborn declaration that he will stay the course no matter what. The White House is digging in and has decided that no sacrifice by others is too great to save them from the humiliation of a pull out.
Forget about impeachment. It's time for both Cheney and Bush to resign. They have become a threat to our national security and to that of all our allies in the region. The world does not want to deal with them any longer.
Push is coming to shove in the Middle East. OPEC, with the backing of the new Saudi King, just might be ready to stick it to us good. Why should the world have to go through hell and back so these dysfunctional incompetents can attempt to save face for another two years?
I was readin Clinton's book this week. I used to know a girl in Burnside named Hillary too, but I don't want to think it was parrallel lives. I thought when he mentioned white-house staff, he was talking about Con Polites Pan-o-rama whitehouse worth $3 million at brighton, south australia and what happened to me the day I took a photo. Another whitehouse was at panorama you see built by Mr. Philipe. Now there's another whitehouse in Highlands coucil area, NSW, which seems to have been set up by bad guys. It could have been hare krishna hare rama, but bill's not into that it seems. I just wish I hadn't writte to him with my suspcions about people here, ex girl freinds, being involved in "terrorism" or that Amnesty International didn't use a fake name when they replied from UK,using the name paula conti. police found out and made some threats, as I'd complained to AI about some of their members ripping me off and being drug dealers. As for Mr. Clark the candidate, thanks very much. In 2004 when they stole my car a girl at the local supermarket dressed up as sandy clark's mother, 1968, and she looked great and followed me to the airport with what looked like her jewish or Lebanese/Iranian etc boyfriend. That's a story. Two houses down from Sandy's mansion, her father was a lawyer named clark, was another mansion, and the name was similar to Brillo Pads. In 1982, they did TV commercials for Brillo Pads, and then by 1986ish moved an Italian doctor into my area Saint peters who's name was almost Brillo, but Borillo. He says he knows people in the intel community here and so when deaths were reported to me, told me to forget it, that never happened. To cut it short, everything would have been OK, except when I contacted australian anti terrorism people about the Bali bomb, they had a conflict of interest it seems. Seemed to help the wrong side, not the complainant. Sure, Balioli Street, College Park, Palm Lodge opposite Hartford Street, where the 7th Day Adventist church is called, Polish. Then when they found out I had phoned the FBI here, stole that contact number too, and the lap top, and the car, and again threats. Bill says they killed two CIA agents in his book. Well, Prince of Wales attended Timbertop school in the 60s. It's Timbertop Street, interstate where niece of Education Minister lived. She drove a Wolsley, so Bill appointed Wolsley as CIA director then. But there's competition and the people I thought were involved in the terrorism stuff snuffed that whole deal out. So when Bill says some of this stuff is state sponsored I think, it looks like it is and some of the states doing it are in Australia. Mckenzie for example, in the 60s, that Beatles song, Elinor Rigby, Father Mckenzie? Rigby was a local publisher of Latin school books. Mckenzie seemingly joined the PLO when she was 15 or something and only hinted she did. Others also, like Johanna became hanna ashrowie, and roweena moved to Balioli Street.
But it all hinged on that girl leni who's surname was taken by the state as the state printed who published Clintons book. they stole her surname in the 50s. So now where the alleged terrorists lived interstate, is where a block of flats bears her name too. She isn't Leni Bruce though. etc etc etc.
Big big mix up.
They're out to get me even more than they already did. But why did Bill Clinton get that young Greek guy he employed to be at a local bottle shop? answer: the alleged terrorist here was in partnership with a greek guy only I ddin't know it and he was here rather than interstate. So, I guess Bill sees me as his enemy. Oh, well, Fleetwood Mac? yeah, songs about our back yard in the 60s. One note he didn't mention in the book was that when the Balkans was on, Jo Gal from Balkans had moved in to #4, as per the book above, and his guys are what? now have a bob dylan song dedicated to them. Who is Bob Dylan? Saw him here recently too and he looked like an old Greek bastard, driving a $600 car. Wanted to hide it seems. Got the idea for the full length leather coat from an unpublished mss I did. Same with Bill. Only 3 people ever saw it. Write Arthur C cLarke, in Sri Lanka, Barbara bauer lit agency New jersey, who ripped me off, and local Sharon the Greek girl, and of course my bastard brother. Australia for your information, is like a medievil state and in so many ways has absolutely no legalsystem at all. There don't seem to be any human rights, no constitution and the Labor party simply, well, words can't really describe what they do, other than, nothing good. Democrats here? Liberals? John Howard thinks he's running The Party of God. Been "publishing" stuff they stole fromme since the 60s. mel Gibson? Maxwell motors was Mad Max and the last one about Jesus in Armenian or etc? They broke in, 1977, saw I'd bought a book, The Aquarian Gospell translated from the Aramaic, and waited for the time to be ripe and then began the torture again. They don't seem to have any class. Who am I?
Tim Leary the LSD and etc guru, who did a thing about a Burnside girl I knew named Fiona Jolliffe, as IFIF, lies, but he did know I was the captain of the Australian Little League team 1971. Someone wanted my health and so they stole it. These days the thieves include Prof. paul Davis who won a million dollars with his string theory, and he harassed me in 2004 in Unley in the street where I was born. he is mentioned in the book, The Real Second Coming of Christ, Self Realization Fellowship, 2000 pages, which says, there is no second coming. Funny? well, they got your money.
DPD on November 28, 2006 at 07:13 PM,
As Georgie flies around the world trying to shore up his legacy, Dicky sticks to business as usual trying to shore up the oil market. I think the rest of the world can see through this charade we have in our executive branch of government. Who can blame other "roque" countries establishing relations to guard against our "mad king?" They may actually be able to stop the Armageddon that our radical right is trying to achieve. In two years we get rid of this guy, and hopefully can resume normal relations with the other "roque" nations, that is, if we are not one by then ourselves.
It is kinda scary when one thinks of the Saudi connetions to terrorism, that have been covered over by this administration, and what they might contribute to before January 2009 and beyond.
Judge: make bills recognizable to blind
WASHINGTON -- The government discriminates against blind people by printing money that all looks and feels the same, a federal judge said Tuesday in a ruling that could change the face of American currency.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson ordered the Treasury Department to come up with ways for the blind to tell bills apart. He said he wouldn't tell officials how to fix the problem, but he ordered them to begin working on it.
The American Council of the Blind has proposed several options, including printing bills of differing sizes, adding embossed dots or foil to the paper or using raised ink.
Thank you, indeed, to Tracy and all the IT people at the DNC. Would love to know what happened, but am happy for you that it is straightened out.
AmericaBlog has been good today. But I was particularly drawn to an item about the cowardly Newt Gingrich, who like all conservative cowards, is pissing his pants and wants to destroy our freedoms before the terrorists get us.
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.
Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.
"We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the next decade," said Gingrich, a Republican who helped engineer the GOP's takeover of Congress in 1994.
Aravosis responds:
I have had it with Republicans who hate America, who hate our freedoms, who hate what this country stands for, and who think that the only way to save our freedoms from the terrorists is for us to destroy those freedoms first. Honestly, how do these scaredy-cat, quaking-in-their-boots, America-haters even dare call themselves patriotic Americans? They are terrified of their own shadow, these Republicans.
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Okay, I have determined that the winner of this week's STFU award is none other than Eye of Newt Gingrich. Newty can stick his 21thcentury contract on america right where the sun don't shine. Newty - STFU bozo.
Kristen on November 28, 2006 at 07:41 PM,
The only thing missing in that cartoon is a caricature of a Drug industry official saying, "Here little one take a few of these they'll make you feel calmer."
Pelosi Tells Hastings No On Intelligence Chairmanship
As National Journal's CongressDaily reports, after meeting with House Speaker-elect Pelosi this afternoon, Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., issued a statement confirming he will not serve as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
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fine by me ... let me say two words:
Rush Holt
Where are my manners? Good evening rj, Kristen, Ozzie (where's Harriot), DPD, SandyH,CYN_NY, davidual (oops, that's me) all have a fine evening.
Riga, Latvia - President Bush, under pressure to change direction in Iraq, said Tuesday he will not be persuaded by any calls to withdraw American troops before the country is stabilized.
"There's one thing I'm not going to do, I'm not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete," he said in a speech setting the stage for high-stakes meetings with the Iraqi prime minister later this week. "We can accept nothing less than victory for our children and our grandchildren."
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So, nothing has changed in Bush world. He is still talking about "the mission" and "victory".
There is only one answer. We are going to have to cut the money. Not all at once but enough to force the military to draw back operations and troop levels. Otherwise, nothing will change over the next two years except that it more will die for no reason.
Where are my manners? Good evening rj, Kristen, Ozzie (where's Harriot), DPD, SandyH,CYN_NY, davidual (oops, that's me) all have a fine evening.
****
good evening David and everyone else on the blog.
Rep. Pryce Wins in Ohio; Recount Will Be Done
The Associated Press
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806P.shtml
Still three races in dispute! The Florida race is an object lesson in why paperless voting machines are bad, bad, bad.
There's one thing I'm not going to do, I'm not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete," he said in a speech setting the stage for high-stakes meetings with the Iraqi prime minister later this week. ***
So, nothing has changed in Bush world. He is
Posted by rjsnj on November 28, 2006 at 07:54 PM,
What the hell? What about "mission accomplished" on May 9, 2004 on the deck of the frickin' Kitty Hawk, or whatever? Look up unconscionable in any dictionary and you'll get a picture of the Bush crime family.
Free Trade Arithmetic for Progressives
By Dean Baker
t r u t h o u t | Columnist
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112306G.shtml
***
The incomparable economist Dean Baker speaks out on "free trade". This is the first time I recall an article from Dean Baker on this subject. He writes alot about social security and health care.
Still three races in dispute! The Florida race is an object lesson in why paperless voting machines are bad, bad, bad.
Posted by rjsnj on November 28, 2006 at 07:58 PM,
We knew that, but couldn't do anything about then. Maybe the democratic congress can tackle that problem, it's doable.
What about "mission accomplished" on May 9, 2004 on the deck of the frickin' Kitty Hawk, or whatever?
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david,
I think there is only one mission - establish permanent bases in Iraq. The reason - protect the oil companies in the Middle East.
Dems need to have courage. Call the neocons and their mouthpiece Bush on the carpet.
Posted by davidual on November 28, 2006 at 08:02 PM,
Oops, I'm sorry, wasn't that May 9, 2003?
May 9, 2003?
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I think so! As Pissed Off Liberal would say - it was all bullsh*t, a feel good moment for Bush. So, how does it feel now? So, Shotgun Dick has been summoned by the real lords and masters - the Saudi royals. Leave to oil men to always tend to the one thing that matters to them - OIL!
Ahhh, dates, dates, dates, never had one I didn't forget; some unwillingly! I guess it was 5/9/2004... Anyway, I have to help son with homework, bbl!!
Hey, Gregg, the thread is open, but don't say it to loudly.
Past Vietnam War Haunting Future Iraq War
Fighting conflict turned into a war.
Another war turning into civil war.
Mission Accomplished banner wars,
Six more months, six more month wars.
Mistakes of relearning a Vietnam quagmire,
Mistakes of retooling armor plate too late,
Mistakes of an Aircraft carrier War President,
Mistakes of disbanding trained security force.
Homework of secret agendas left unfinished,
Homework spreading unprepared into years,
Homework with no exit strategy of success,
Homework of manipulated lies over Truth.
Supporters of the Iraq War, must now volunteer to serve!
The quagmire quicksand must be navigated by those
Leaders who were so vocal, shouting allegiance of Bush,
They must be drafted for a solution upon the front lines.
Upon the middle of a minefield the United States stands
Damned if it pulls out, leaving genocide in its wake
Damned if it stays, soldiers and Iraqi’s dying increasingly
Damned if it does nothing preventing security’s bloodbath .
So Mr. President, and your devout followers must decide
As English, Italian, Polish troops leave, do we also depart?
Will you take the lead into one of histories great successes
Or will it be recorded a failure, not doing your homework!
David L. Young 11/28/06
there are several more points I'll end today with which Clinton's book wouldn't cover because, he's against me seemingly. I don't know why.
1. Lutherans. currently our state is positioned as a 1968 beatle song with the attorney general being to reference a location, 3 street names; one is the word green, but should not be heather green or her imaginary daugter lucy, now all named smith in honor of the policeman gordon smith and wife edna who was killed 1967 ish, as part of a university conspiracy which lawyer barry humphries puffed up into an internationla stage show, Dame Edna. Luthers have cross referenced the street name, but different area where a drive in theatre was and where the James family had a grandmother. The James were employed to take over state print works, where Bill's book was published here; becuse the works name is stolen from a girl I knew in the 50s Leni. Lutherans also had their local Sonia, as refence to Indian Sonia gandhi. My neighours seemed to be involvved in the assassinatio of her husband in the 80s. Irish guy was involved named Barr, plus lawyers and Kuss. No evidence, scott free. Crystal cathedral in california is the german choclotae pudding mix the luthersn soldhere at the market in the 50s?
2. Catholics on the hand, were linked to UK, and also now Bloomsbury Street and Bloomsbury Publisher, via the Tv show, BBC Dangerman starring Patrick McGowan. So new church other side of town called Elan Gowan. But the guy who lived there is named Graham. They used him via watergate, the newspaper that did the story, was owned by someone with the same name. Even same name as school teacher Glen Woodwood, was used in USA as woodwood and bernstein.So it's a con, or fake, or a political orgy.
3. Currently, all pubs here are now named The Irish pub, or names are taken from the book The path by Donald Walters which they saw me reading. Or my book, Starfish, or etc. These are the serious problem people. Isle of Capri too, is a pub. The TM people were involved in this. They wanted to rewrite history, the past and have a one party system of government, ie, totalitarianism. so, they cna change a plaque that's been there for 50 years into another plaque. OK, must go now.
Still three races in dispute! The Florida race is an object lesson in why paperless voting machines are bad, bad, bad.
Posted by davidual on November 28, 2006 at 08:04 PM
We're pulling for a favorable court ruling here, davidual. There is definitely a new election called for in this situation as Christine Jennings is asking for.
And that Supervisor of Elections now has a citizens group prompted and ready to sue Sarasota County because of denial of voting due to the problematic machines and the faulty ballot design. They are saying that because of the incompetency of the Election office, the Supervisor and the poll workers, folks were denied the benefit of voting. Now there is also a little contingency that is asking Jeb to remove Ms. Dent from office all together because they feel she was criminally negligent when it was reported consistently during early voting and on Election Day about the machine malfunctions and she, the supervisor failed to remove the machines or stop usage of them thereby letting unsuspecting voters use them and put their vote in danger of not being counted or tallied at all.
So as they say: That's how we do it in Florida.
Actually, it was 5-1-03 on the USS Abe Lincoln, 24 miles from San Diego (which was visible by the TV cameras, so the Abe and the entire support group had to be moved to a position where the shoreline, and skyline weren't visible, which added several days to the deployment.
But, who gives a shit about the Military, when there is a photo op to do? 'Specially when the Little Prince gets to "FLY A PLANE" when he wasn't allowed to. (Boy, they changed that "he took the stick" LIE really fast).
If you go to the Pravda on the Potomac (otherwise known as the White House archives, and look at the video for "President announces end of major combat operations", you will seee a doctored video, with the "Mission Accomplished" banner cut out.
All the wing nut appologists are claiming that the black band is to cover the CNN or FOX scrolls on the bottom, but they don't take into account that the video was a WH POOL tape, WHICH WAS ALTERED. (More on that when the trolls link to their You Tube geek who claims to "debunk" things from his divorced mothers' basement).
Oh, "other" videos NOW have that same black stripe, but was the picture raised 20%?
NOTHING ACCOMPLISHED! SEND THE DRUNKEN TWINS TO IRAQ!
Food Security
Posted by Kristen on November 28, 2006 at 07:41 PM
A new word or phrase for hunger, "low food security". Just another way to dodge saying there is true hunger and poverty in this country while we spend and send billions of dollars for the moneymongerers to steal.
G.W. Asks About Webb's Son. Webb wants to 'slug him'.
President Bush has pledged to work with the new Democratic majorities in Congress, but he has already gotten off on the wrong foot with Jim Webb, whose surprise victory over Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) tipped the Senate to the Democrats
Webb, a decorated former Marine officer, hammered Allen and Bush over the unpopular war in Iraq while wearing his son’s old combat boots on the campaign trail. It seems the president may have some lingering resentment.
At a private reception held at the White House with newly elected lawmakers shortly after the election, Bush asked Webb how his son, a Marine lance corporal serving in Iraq, was doing.
Webb responded that he really wanted to see his son brought back home, said a person who heard about the exchange from Webb.
“I didn’t ask you that, I asked how he’s doing,” Bush retorted, according to the source.
Webb confessed that he was so angered by this that he was tempted to slug the commander-in-chief, reported the source, but of course didn’t. It’s safe to say, however, that Bush and Webb won’t be taking any overseas trips together anytime soon.
Dailykos
Bush is back to telling Iraq lies again today, claiming that Al Qaeda is responsible for the violence in Iraq, when only about 500 Iraqi and 500 foreign fighters are estimated to be Al Qaeda members in Iraq. But it is tens of thousands of Sunni and Shiite militia members responsible for the bulk of sectarian Iraqi violence. Al Qaeda is probably only about 1% or 2% of the Iraqi insurgents at most.
Incoming Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi made it clear that it is hard to work with Bush when the lies just seem to roll off his lips and he won't honestly tell the truth about matters and level. Bush should be concerned about his reputation and straighten up and act presidential until this big mistake leaves office.
PROGRESSIVE VALUES
NOTHING ACCOMPLISHED! SEND THE DRUNKEN TWINS TO IRAQ!
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Truly!
Why is Bush still talking about completing the mission he claimed was accomplished back in 2003?
Gingrich thinks people without money should have their speech curtailed, but people with money should be able to say whatever they want. Me thinks Gingrich talks out both sides of his posterior.
MANCHESTER, N.H. --Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday that First Amendment rights need to be expanded and cited the elimination of McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms as one solution.
Gingrich, a Republican, suggested allowing people to give any amount to any candidate as long as the donation is reported online within 24 hours.
... Passed in 2002, the campaign finance law known as McCain-Feingold banned unrestricted donations from labor, corporations and the wealthy to the political parties. Gingrich said the reforms have failed and only led to more negative campaign ads via e-mail, television, direct mail and phone calls.
Boston Globe
Why is Bush still talking about completing the mission he claimed was accomplished back in 2003?
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marine, the mission is the permanent bases in Iraq. Once our position is "cemented", if that is possible, Bush has completed the mission. The problem is that the people of Iraq look at this as occupation and don't want it.
Well, it's Malloy time. He's ripping Bush's idiotic speech to Nato.
BBL
Me thinks Gingrich talks out both sides of his posterior.
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A final thought on Newt. Everyone can speak as much as they want to except Newt! He is the winner of the STFU award and should proceed accordingly.
Goodnight all
The latest attempt at to blame the disaster of Iraq on the terrorists who moved in thanks to our distruction of that nations infrastructure is as lame as all that have come before it. It was just about a week ago when I first heard some fool tout the idea that all sectarian violence in Iraq can be traced back to the bombing of the Al-`Askarī, or Golden, Mosque in February of 2006. There's just one problem with this claim, sectarian violence had been wide spread before that day.
Remember the years 2003, 2004, and 2005? How can the bombing of a mosque in 2006 explain the sectarian violence that took place in those years? The answer is, it can't.
We attempted to use the sectarian division to our advantage in earlier attempts to remove Saddam Hussein from power. We armed some Kurds and dropped leaflets into Baghdad encouraging Shi'a Iraqis to overthrow their minority Sunni led leaders. Now I'm not saying that we caused the Iraq civil war, but we most certainly had a part in laying the ground work.
We've seen this happen before. It happened to former Soviet and British territories after those regimes were forced to allow local rule. In all of these instances a severely strict ruling class had dominated all peoples of a region forcing them to set aside their differences in order to survive. The removal of that dominant force in every case has led to civil stife such as that seen in Iraq.
Gingrich said the reforms have failed and only led to more negative campaign ads via e-mail, television, direct mail and phone calls.
I can deal with negative campaigning, it beats allowing money to have the sole say in our elections. The man obviously knows that such tactics would give a few Americans greater access to politicians or he wouldn't be suggesting such a thing. The man should already be in jail for the damage he caused our alliance with nations like Canada at a time when we would need as much help as we could get from the international community.
Hi all, just passing through tonight. Has anyone considered that Mr. Bush might actually be mentally ill? I mean clinically. Can anyone really be that out of touch with reality and be considered totally sane? Maybe it's time that he check into a center for some mental health care. It is beyond rationality to believe that he is in comand of his senses at this point.
Maybe it's time that he check into a center for some mental health care. It is beyond rationality to believe that he is in comand of his senses at this point.
Posted by AaronM on November 28, 2006 at 09:36 PM
Sad thing is you would have to make room for 50 million Murkin Khristuns who voted for him. I say make room.
What's happening in the world today?
Seems our dislusional President is stating that there is only secretarian violence in Iraq.
THERE IS A CIVIL WAR, just when will it sink into dubya's brain.
DPD on November 28, 2006 at 08:38 PM,
Thanks for the clarity!! All I was seeing at that moment was red. The red of embarrassment of having such a president [I'll skip the adjectives/expletives].
Bush hopes Maliki has a few ideas he can borrow
The president has been busy in Eastern Europe this morning, making brief appearances in Latvia and Estonia. Bush fielded a handful of questions about Iraq, but unfortunately, he didn’t have anything encouraging to say.
“There’s one thing I’m not going to do, I’m not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete,” Bush said in Latvia. “We can accept nothing less than victory for our children and our grandchildren.”
That’s fairly predictable palaver, but in advance of his Thursday meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki, does the president have any thoughts on how he might achieve “nothing less than victory”? Not so much.
Instead, the president hopes Maliki will fill in some answers for him.
“My questions to him will be: What do we need to do to succeed? What is your strategy in dealing with the sectarian violence? […]
“I will ask him: What is required and what is your strategy to be a country which can govern itself and sustain itself? And it’s going to be an important meeting, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Let me get this straight. After nearly four years of war, and with conditions deteriorating by the day, Bush has given up on articulating his own vision for victory, and plans to ask Maliki if he has any ideas?
In other words, Bush says we’re stuck in Iraq and we’ll accept nothing less than victory. Asked how we achieve this victory, the president seemed to respond, “Beats me; let’s see what that Maliki guy has to say.”
Carpetbagger
Hi all, just passing through tonight. Has anyone considered that Mr. Bush might actually be mentally ill? I mean clinically. Can anyone really be that out of touch with reality and be considered totally sane? Maybe it's time that he check into a center for some mental health care. It is beyond rationality to believe that he is in comand of his senses at this point.
Posted by AaronM on November 28, 2006 at 09:36 PM
Oh he's as sane as you and I. The difference being he doesn't give a damn and he IS totally ignorant. The man has no intelligence at all. In essence he doesn't really give a damn how this war turns out because he accomplished what he set out to do - lay the framework for the moneymongerers to make tons of money. So at this point everything he says sounds stupid and foolish because it is.
All because at this point he doesn't care.
President Bush says, “I will ask him: What is required and what is your strategy to be a country which can govern itself and sustain itself?"
Excuse me, Mr. President. Yes it's me your humble servent down here on Earth. Has it occurred to you that Mr. Maliki would have shared with you any ideas he had for solving the problems in Iraq at some point in the past if indeed he had them?
We've been telling what you need to know sir, that's our job. I know you haven't always liked what we've had to say, but if you'll take a look at Iraq you'll notice that we were right. Diplomacy and a show of military might may not have accomplished the job in Iraq overnight with Saddam in power, but we'd be further along than we are now had we stuck with our plans.
Domingo on November 28, 2006 at 10:16 PM,
That ought to clear things up, right?
And the thing that gets me is that these hard line neo-conservative christian right oligarchs just cannot admit how screwed up this administration has made our world!! They love it!! "Ahh, beleeeve!" Backing up and otherwise covering the lie ultimately makes them part of the lie. I wonder if they've ever heard of atonement? Do they really believe that because the wail, "Ahhh, beleeeve in Jeesaus," that they can do what they want to whom they want? Well, I'm sorry, but that's not the God I believe in.
I'm out for awhile again. Bedtime story time.
Davidual, they didn't support anything because it was the Christian thing to do, they supported them because Republicans marketed themselves as the only Christians.
“There’s one thing I’m not going to do, I’m not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete,” Bush said in Latvia. “We can accept nothing less than victory for our children and our grandchildren.”
Posted by Domingo on November 28, 2006 at 10:16 PM
Mission? What is the mission? Now it is the consensous of everyone that this is a civil war with several warring factions. So what is our mission that we are trying to accomplish? Is it victory? How can their be such a thing in a civil war that is rooted in culture and religion. And what do our children and grandchild have to gain from a civil war on another continent between battling factions that don't even want our presence?
And the Bush legacy will be? .........
Junior is now trying to say all the violence in Iraq is one "big al qeada plot" and we have to stay there to save the Iraqis from al qeada. With all the war money going into Junior's cronies bank accounts, his biggest crony being Cheney who's war profiteering from righ inside the White House, it's obvious Junior just never wants to leave that place. The place that's laying the golden eggs for his family and friends.
How immoral is it to own stock in a company that makes profit from the war that you are waging? This should be screemed from the press. Carlyle!!!
Darth Cheney’s Power-Hungry and Secretive Roots
The Iran-contra scandal was not the first time the future vice president articulated a philosophy of unfettered executive power — nor would it be the last. The Constitution empowers Congress to pass laws regulating the executive branch, but over the course of his career, Cheney came to believe that the modern world is too dangerous and complex for a president's hands to be tied. He embraced a belief that presidents have vast "inherent" powers, not spelled out in the Constitution, that allow them to defy Congress.
A close look at key moments in Cheney's career — from his political apprenticeship in the Nixon and Ford administrations to his decade in Congress and his tenure as secretary of defense under the first President Bush — suggests that the newly empowered Democrats in Congress should not expect the White House to cooperate when they demand classified information or attempt to exert oversight in areas such as domestic surveillance or the treatment of terrorism suspects.
Boston Globe
"Stop Funding War!" Campaign Update
Sign the Petition to Support H.R. 4232
Introduced by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA)
We know this guy's a liar. Making false accusations against people. Telling lies. Torturing people into confessing to things they didn't do. Denying trails for folks he's knows are innocent. Can we trust any claim the man makes? Can we allow him that power to accuse whoever he wants?
Judge strikes down Bush on terror groups
LOS ANGELES - A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutionally vague, according to a ruling released Tuesday.
The Humanitarian Law Project had challenged Bush's order, which blocked all the assets of groups or individuals he named as "specially designated global terrorists" after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
"This law gave the president unfettered authority to create blacklists," said David Cole, a lawyer for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Constitutional Rights that represented the group. "It was reminiscent of the McCarthy era."
"Even in fighting terrorism the president cannot be given a blank check to blacklist anyone he considers a bad guy or a bad group and you can't imply guilt by association," Cole said.
Yahoo News
Why is Pelosi considering Alcee Hastings as House Intelligence Committee Chairman when there's signficant evidence that he may have tried to get a bribe, and may have lied about it? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/31/AR2006103101314.html
looks like webb is gonna be alot of fun. glad i made calls for him thru moveon and sent him money:
In Following His Own Script, Webb May Test Senate's Limits
By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 29, 2006; Page A01
At a recent White House reception for freshmen members of Congress, Virginia's newest senator tried to avoid President Bush. Democrat James Webb declined to stand in a presidential receiving line or to have his picture taken with the man he had often criticized on the stump this fall. But it wasn't long before Bush found him.
"How's your boy?" Bush asked, referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq.
"I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.
"That's not what I asked you," Bush said. "How's your boy?"
"That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.
Webb was narrowly elected to the U.S. Senate this month with a brash, unpolished style that helped win over independent voters in Virginia and earned him support from national party leaders. Now, his Democratic colleagues in the Senate are getting a close-up view of the former boxer, military officer and Republican who is joining their ranks.
If the exchange with Bush two weeks ago is any indication, Webb won't be a wallflower, especially when it comes to the war in Iraq. And he won't stick to a script drafted by top Democrats.
"I'm not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall," Webb said in an interview yesterday...
a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112801582.html">webb treats bush like something stuck to the bottom of his shoe..finally a guy with the right perspective on the dummie
gdb, maybe if your sorry troll ass would stop bothering us and read the news you would know that pelosi ruled hastings out.
so now let's talk about when bush is gonna get rid of the crimminals like cheney and apologize for going on rush limpbone to dis kerry and mjfox....cat got your fingers?
ship of bush is springing leaks like an old washtub...tsk, tsk...
WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 — A classified memorandum by President Bush’s national security adviser expressed serious doubts about whether Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had the capacity to control the sectarian violence in Iraq and recommended that the United States take new steps to strengthen the Iraqi leader’s position.
The prime minister wants to expand the size of the army.
The Nov. 8 memo was prepared for Mr. Bush and his top deputies by Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, and senior aides on the staff of the National Security Council after a trip by Mr. Hadley to Baghdad.
The memo suggests that if Mr. Maliki fails to carry out a series of specified steps, it may ultimately be necessary to press him to reconfigure his parliamentary bloc, a step the United States could support by providing “monetary support to moderate groups,” and by sending thousands of additional American troops to Baghdad to make up for what the document suggests is a current shortage of Iraqi forces. [Text, Page A19.]
The memo presents an unvarnished portrait of Mr. Maliki and notes that he relies for some of his political support on leaders of more extreme Shiite groups. The five-page document, classified secret, is based in part on a one-on-one meeting between Mr. Hadley and Mr. Maliki on Oct. 30.
“His intentions seem good when he talks with Americans, and sensitive reporting suggests he is trying to stand up to the Shia hierarchy and force positive change,” the memo said of the Iraqi leader. “But the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.”
An administration official made a copy of the document available to a New York Times reporter seeking information on the administration’s policy review. The Times read and transcribed the memo...
the back stabers
Hannity goes for Brokeback
Exploring Fox News anchor Sean Hannity's online dating service, which includes an option for gay men.
HAVE I EVER wondered what a wonderful world it would be if only my fans could get together, talk about how great I am and fall in love over their joint love for me? Sure, but unlike Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, I haven't done anything about it. At Hannity.com, in addition to enjoying the book club (Newt Gingrich, Jeff Foxworthy), song club (Charlie Daniels Band, Martina McBride), photos (Hannity's Insanity in Phoenix) and comic books ("Liberality for All" is set in 2021 and has a bionic Hannity, G. Gordon Liddy, Oliver North and a man born on Sept. 11, 2001, fighting to save a U.S. controlled by the U.N., including Ambassador Osama bin Laden), visitors can log on to Hannidate.
Conservatives need late-night, out-of-town hookups just as much as liberals. They also, it seems, need some hot man-on-man action. If you pull down the menu on Hannidate, you can select "I am a male, seeking a male." This was surprising because not even eHarmony allows same-sex pairings. Stranger still for a Fox News commentator's site, you can select ZIP Codes in Beverly Hills, Provincetown and San Francisco.
Figuring this was an embarrassing oversight by the Hannity.com administrator who must have bought the dating service software from some liberal company, I immediately contacted Hannity, hoping he'd panic and cry and possibly use his bionic powers. But it turns out Hannity was well aware of the gay Hannidate feature and is fine with it. "Hannidate is open to everyone," he informed me.
LA Times
Hi, everyone.
I'm just passing by, too. But I wanted to comment on the link rjsnj posted about free trade.
Posted by rjsnj on November 28, 2006 at 08:02 PM
I think this article hits the nail on the head. The GOP's "free trade" has always been about protectionism...protecting the interests of the ruling class.
Because American CEOs knew they wouldn't be able to control the pirating of their products with the new technologies, they pushed for controlling the people who would buy them. Enter in the age of outsourcing and illegal workers.
But the ruling class was as stupid as they were greedy...so much so that they outsourced the jobs of the very professionals that created the intellectual capital which they sought to protect with international patent and trademark enforcement. Now there isn't much being created nowdays in America that anyone would want to pirate.
It works like one of those pyramid schemes. As you eliminate the structure at the base and continue adding to the top, the pyramid begins to cave in with its own weight.
Unfortunately, the ruling class interests aren't worth much these days as they skimmed off most of the profits in mergers, stock options, and golden parachutes without reinvesting in this country where they could be manipulated in the future.
The Communists and Socialists overseas will nationalize what little is left of the original assets after depreciation of those American-made factories. So unless the multinationals can get the same little people in this country who they forced into underemployed to buy their highly inflated stocks, the game is nearly over. Enter in the age of social security "reform."
I guess that's another reason why the Bush crime family is so intent on keeping the Iraq war profiteering machine going for two more years. Keeping the violence going in the Middle East has been a good diversion/cover for their economic con job operation.
But the oil producers appear to be growing tired of the scam...and think they are taking all the risk with the violence so close to home and having to bankroll American debt that just keeps skyrocketing. When OPEC finally insists that the Euro becomes the new rate of exchange for oil, the pyramid crashes.
Now who was it I heard was buying up vast tracks of land in South America...even as their kids party there? I'd get out, too, if I was running a scam about to go bust. But I wouldn't have pissed off the new socialist leadership running South America as I planned to go into hiding there.
It's just another example of the incompetence among the inbred American ruling class. They aren't playing with a full deck....in more ways than one.
Bush can't understand why he can't win.
Iraqi Kid Runs For Water
US Tank crushes Iraqi civilian's car
“But the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.”
Posted by Domingo on November 29, 2006 at 12:04 AM
Will,
Likes attract? Bush and Maliki are like two peas in a pod. Only Maliki has al Sadr and Iran on his side. Bush use to have Poland.
Whoops. Sorry. That was gregg who posted that link.
Posted by gregg on November 28, 2006 at 11:56 PM
Posted by gregg on November 28, 2006 at 11:51 PM
Hey gregg, and all dems
Do you think Webb has had a change of heart? Maybe having his kid serve in Iraq has changed his outlook on things.
I hope the DNC will keep us up on Governor Dean's speech in Canada tonight..the 29th. The media is just ignoring this big honor, so it would be nice to have some pics and write-up.
Hey hello owls,
Didn't see any thing here about this yet:
Protester immolation virtually unnoticed
ASHLEY M. HEHER
Associated Press
CHICAGO - Malachi Ritscher envisioned his death as one full of purpose.
He carefully planned the details, mailed a copy of his apartment key to a friend, created to-do lists for his family. On his Web site, the 52-year-old experimental musician who'd fought with depression even penned his obituary.
At 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 3 - four days before an election caused a seismic shift in Washington politics - Ritscher, a frequent anti-war protester, stood by an off-ramp in downtown Chicago near a statue of a giant flame, set up a video camera, doused himself with gasoline and lit himself on fire.
******
And from his mission statement:
******
I am amazed how many people think they know me, even people who I have never talked with. Many people will think that I should not be able to choose the time and manner of my own death. My position is that I only get one death, I want it to be a good one. Wouldn't it be better to stand for something or make a statement, rather than a fiery collision with some drunk driver? Are not smokers choosing death by lung cancer? Where is the dignity there? Are not the people the people who disregard the environment killing themselves and future generations? Here is the statement I want to make: if I am required to pay for your barbaric war, I choose not to live in your world. I refuse to finance the mass murder of innocent civilians, who did nothing to threaten our country. I will not participate in your charade - my conscience will not allow me to be a part of your crusade. There might be some who say "it's a coward's way out" - that opinion is so idiotic that it requires no response. From my point of view, I am opening a new door.
What is one more life thrown away in this sad and useless national tragedy? If one death can atone for anything, in any small way, to say to the world: I apologize for what we have done to you, I am ashamed for the mayhem and turmoil caused by my country. I was alive when John F. Kennedy instilled hope into a generation, and I was a sorry witness to the final crushing of hope by Dick Cheney's puppet, himself a pawn of the real rulers, the financial plunderers and looters who profit from every calamity; following the template of Reagan's idiocracy.
http://www.savagesound.com/gallery99.htm
--Wake up moneyeyedmedia, only 10 Americans have done this.
The Five Fatal Mistakes of Bush's Mideast Policy
President Bush travels to Jordan this week amid a consensus among U.S. allies in the Middle East that the region is monumentally worse off now than it was when he took office six years ago. In Iraq, there seems little prospect of achieving anything that could be construed as a U.S. victory — and as a result, it is unlikely to send the promised tidal wave of freedom crashing across the Arab world. Instead, Iraq has effectively disintegrated into a Sunni-Shi'ite civil war that threatens to spread instability throughout the region.
Elsewhere, Israelis and Palestinians have descended into one of the most intractable cycles of conflict in their long struggle. In Lebanon, the national unity agreement that ended almost two decades of civil war in 1990 appears to be unraveling, as sectarian factions are again edging toward another bloodbath. Meanwhile, Arab autocrats remain entrenched, Arab democrats are feeling abandoned, and Iran's Islamic revolution is enjoying a second wind. For all the grand ambition of President Bush's interventions in the Middle East, a veteran Western diplomat recently offered TIME the following glum assessment: "The region is in as serious a mess as I have ever seen it. There is an unprecedented number of interconnected conflicts and threats."
The fact that Bush is holding talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki not in Baghdad, but in the comparatively tranquil Jordanian capital of Amman, has not gone unnoticed."One hundred and fifty thousand U.S. soldiers cannot secure protection for their president," mocked a Jordanian columnist, who called the choice of venue "an open admission of gross failure for Washington and its allies' project in Iraq."
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1563750,00.html?cnn=yes
Quote of the day:
“We are confronting the devil, and we will hit a home run off the devil next Sunday."
"It's worse than a civil war. In a civil war, you at least know which factions are fighting each other. We don't even know that anymore. It's so bloody confused."
"They were murderers, murderers. They were not officers. No one gives anyone the right to kill somebody.”
“My son is an honest man.”
— George H. W. Bush
defending the current President against harsh criticism at a leadership conference in the United Arab Emirates
Hi WD,
That's why the American people genuinly and rightfully so, have no faith in the Police.I'd rather the F.B.I. take over those operations and do away with a local Police Force force alltogether, but that's just a pipe dream.
;p
In his primary campaign in 2003, Dean struck up a friendship with Tina Flournoy, a well-respected operative who worked with Al Gore and Joe Lieberman during the 2000 presidential race and who now held a senior position at the American Federation of Teachers, one of the party’s most influential unions. Flournoy was also a charter member of an informal dinner clique whose members referred to themselves, good-naturedly, as the Colored Girls. The core group included several African-American women who had reached the highest echelons of Democratic politics. Donna Brazile, the veteran organizer who managed Gore’s presidential campaign, was a regular; so were Minyon Moore, a consultant who worked in the Clinton White House; Yolanda Caraway, a public-relations specialist; and Leah Daughtry, who was McAuliffe’s chief of staff (and who was retained in that job by Dean). Guest speakers at their dinners frequently included probable presidential candidates and top members of Congress. During the race for chairman, Flournoy brought Dean in as well, and he quickly clicked with the group.
Dean tapped Flournoy to run his transition team, and although she later returned to her job at the teachers’ union, it is now common knowledge among Democrats in Washington that few big decisions are made at the D.N.C. without Flournoy’s approval. The Colored Girls, as a whole, are unusually influential with Dean. It’s an odd pairing, given that Dean governed one of the whitest states in the country, but what Dean and these women share is resentment, sometimes subtle and sometimes not, of the elite Washington Democrats who have always run the national party. Activists like Flournoy and Brazile have attained star status in the party, but they have never thought of themselves as insiders. This is partly because they are black women in a party dominated by white men — men who often seem to prize them more as symbols of diversity than for their expertise. But it is also because the women came up in Democratic politics as local field operatives — that is, as young organizers who knocked on doors, principally for Jesse Jackson — in an era when all of the power in the party was concentrated in the hands of the Washington consultants who made TV ads and polled the electorate. Dean came to Washington vowing to take power from the insiders and give it, instead, to ground-level activists. “That’s our loyalty to Dean,” Brazile says. “He gets it.”
Flournoy also introduced Dean to the pollster Cornell Belcher, who became a constant fixture inside Dean’s D.N.C. Belcher, a deep thinker and jazz aficionado who wears suit coats with unlaced Converse sneakers, had been an outsider, too, in the sense that he didn’t fit into the capital’s pinstriped culture and wasn’t well known before Dean started taking him to meetings on the Hill. In public appearances, Dean almost always refers proudly to the fact that he has retained a “37-year-old African-American pollster” to shake up the staid Washington crowd. In fact, the main theme of Belcher’s work concerns the white middle-class men and women who have deserted the Democrats in recent years. These voters care more about their faith and the character of their communities than they do about individual issues, Belcher says, and Democrats do better with rural and small-town voters when they frame their positions as values rather than as policy prescriptions. This is not an entirely new insight, but to Dean it is critically important. In his mind, it means that any voter in any state can be a Democrat, if only you bother to talk to him, and if only you make the right kind of argument.
The ultimate manifestation of this philosophy, of course, is the 50-state strategy, under which, for the first time, the national party has begun directly financing the staff at all but a few state headquarters. It’s probably fair to say that if there hadn’t been a quagmire in Iraq or a Hurricane Katrina — if the White House’s political fortunes hadn’t imploded over the last year — the 50-state strategy would not have aroused much opposition among Washington Democrats. It was only when they realized that they actually had a chance to take back the House, and maybe the Senate too, that Democratic leaders began to ask, with increasing urgency, what it was that Dean was doing with all the party’s money.
In a city rife with unchecked egos, few politicians exhibit the kind of unbridled self-assuredness for which both Emanuel and Schumer are known; to call the two of them pushy would be like calling Tom Cruise excitable. Emanuel, a triathlete who was Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff and enforcer, speaks in violent bursts of shrapnel, profanities flying in all directions. Schumer, like his native Brooklyn, can be, by turns, charming or downright dangerous, depending on which route delivers him faster to his destination.
Before this midterm election-year began, but not long after Dean became party head, Emanuel and Schumer decided that if Dean wasn’t going to raise anywhere near as much money as his rivals at Republican headquarters, then he ought to at least give them whatever resources he could muster. They went to work on Dean, pleading with him to transfer as much as $10 million to the two committees to help them respond to the Republican TV barrage. Emanuel told anyone who would listen that back in 1994, when Republicans sensed a similarly historic mood swing in the electorate, the R.N.C. kicked in something like $20 million in cash to its Congressional committees. (This argument was impressive, but not exactly true; the R.N.C. spent roughly that much on federal and local races combined in 1994, and little, if any, of that money went directly to the committees themselves.) Dean categorically refused to ante up. Having opposed the very idea of targeting a small number of states and races, he wasn’t about to divert money from his long-term strategy — what he calls the “unsexy” work of rebuilding the party’s infrastructure — to pay for a bunch of TV ads in Ohio. He wanted to win the 2006 elections as much as anyone, Dean told them, and he intended to help where he could. But Democratic candidates and their campaign committees were doing just fine on fund-raising, and the party couldn’t continue giving in to the temptation to spend everything it had on every election cycle — no matter how big a checkbook the Republicans were waving around.
For Schumer, Emanuel and their allies, this rejection was irritating enough. When they heard the stories of how Dean was actually spending the party’s cash, however, it was almost more than they could take. Dean was paying for four organizers in Mississippi, where there wasn’t a single close House race, but he had sent only three new hires to Pennsylvania, which had a governor’s race, a Senate campaign and four competitive House races. Emanuel said he was all for expanding the party’s reach into rural states — roughly half the House seats he was targeting were in states like Texas, Indiana and Kentucky, after all — but he wanted the D.N.C. to focus on individual districts that Democrats could actually win, as opposed to just spreading money around aimlessly. The D.N.C. was spending its money not only in Alaska and Hawaii, but in the U.S. Virgin Islands as well. Democratic insiders began to rail against this wacky and expensive 50-state plan. “He says it’s a long-term strategy,” Paul Begala, the Democratic strategist, said during an appearance on CNN in May. “What he has spent it on, apparently, is just hiring a bunch of staff people to wander around Utah and Mississippi and pick their nose.”
Bad Cops
Posted by WD on November 29, 2006 at 02:48 AM
I am convinced the entire U.S. Police Force is corrupt. Due to low recruitment ( Gee,I wonder why ) The have dramatically relaxed the requirements.
"Bring us your crooks, your liars, your rapists and your bigots..... "
That might as well be their new slogan. It's entirely appropriate.
;p
The disagreement with Emanuel and Schumer frayed Dean’s already fragile détente with Washington’s Democratic elite. Since coming to Washington, Dean had worked hard to forge a level of trust with Congressional leaders, subjugating some of his more combative impulses. In particular, he had formed what he thought of as a genuine friendship with Harry Reid. Nonetheless, the party’s elected leaders and their legions of consultants remained uneasy about Dean. They suspected, correctly, that he strongly sympathized with outside forces — militant bloggers, disillusioned donors, Moveon.org — that were fomenting rebellion at the grass roots. It didn’t help that Dean’s younger brother, Jim, a onetime salesman who had taken over the PAC Dean started, Democracy for America, was out there proselytizing for insurgent candidates like Paul Hackett, whom Schumer eventually muscled out of a Senate primary in Ohio, and Ned Lamont, who upended Joe Lieberman in Connecticut. While campaign laws prohibited the Dean brothers from coordinating their activities, Washington Democrats assumed that Jim Dean’s job was to carry out the chairman’s subversive wishes.
In separate conversations, Reid and Pelosi each asked Dean — Reid in his quiet way, Pelosi more stridently — to send some money to the two campaign committees. Dean rebuffed them too. But he did promise that the D.N.C. would help with get-out-the vote campaigns. Emanuel and Schumer then began pressing Dean for a specific field plan — that is, a blueprint for how the D.N.C. would spend money on mobilizing voters, and where. The argument finally exploded during a meeting in May among Dean, Emanuel and Schumer in Dean’s third-floor office at the D.N.C. Emanuel told Dean that the 50-state strategy was a waste of money; Dean shot back that winning elections wasn’t only about TV ads. Emanuel wanted to know what Dean was doing to help in California’s 50th district, where voters were about to hold a special election. When Dean said he had organizers on the ground, Emanuel erupted. “Who?” he demanded. “Tell me their names!” Emanuel, who had a vote at the Capitol, stormed out of the meeting, cursing as he walked down the hall.
By now, the situation had as much to do with clashing egos as it did with the elections. “The issue here is not our field plan,” Dean told me. “The issue is an issue of control. I’m the new guy on the block, and they thought they were going to get me writing the check.” For his part, Emanuel, who had been a pivotal adviser in several national elections (he was the model for the character Josh Lyman in “The West Wing”), seemed annoyed that Dean wouldn’t defer to Democrats with more experience. That Dean raised money by talking about the closeness of the 2006 elections — and then spent much of that money in states that had nothing to do with the midterms — made Emanuel, whose office sits a floor below Dean’s in the D.N.C. building, want to reach through the tile ceiling and throttle him.
What was remarkable about this fight, as it dragged on throughout the summer, was just how public it became, and the extent to which it seemed to be pulling influential Democrats into its vortex. Bren Simon, a wealthy Democratic patron from Indiana who has entertained virtually every leading Democrat at her second home in Washington, told me that she warned Emanuel and Schumer that she wouldn’t write them any more checks if they didn’t stop fighting Dean over his 50-state strategy. Then there was the morning early in the summer when Brazile ran into Emanuel on the steps of the D.N.C. building and started loudly lecturing him about his attacks on the chairman, in full view of party employees. Emanuel protested that he just wanted to win back the House. Two of the Democratic Party’s leading strategists — one who had helped run the White House, the other who had managed a presidential campaign — stood there barking at each other on the street.
Posted by WD on November 29, 2006 at 04:01 AM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some advice.
There's an unspoken rule in the Blogosphere that everyone sort of adheres to if they want to participate or have their posts read.
1.) Never post someone elses work without acknowlegement thereof backed up with a link.
2.) Never submit long posts. They are a sure way to get overlooked.
3.) Newcomers looking to be welcomed as serious , should at least , from time to time , use their own words.
4.) Newcomers should not allow themselves to get offended and discouraged when corrected by regulars (okay, I threw that one in there)
I'm not trying to diss you at all WD. I'm just offering advice.
3.) Newcomers looking to be welcomed as serious , should at least , from time to time , use their own words.
To type all that myself would take too long. I could give you the link, but you'd have to pay to read it. This way it can be read for free. I thought you'd be intrested in the story about "The colored girls" of the DNC. Maybe J will get something out of it.
Still, WD you should post the source. Often times , the story comes from a rightwing paper or one with a right wing slant. The fact that it may be interesting, takes a back seat to the assurance that one is not reading right wing talking points disguised as an editorial.
As far as the "Colored Women of the DNC" goes, it was slightly interesting, but nothing great. While I personally object to the term "COLORED" to describe myself, I did take note that according to the story, which cannot be verified, these Black women are old and from the South where too many old Blacks are unaware of just how far we have come as a people and that we are no longer subject to such lables, but I digress on that. Again, because you do not post your source or the link there of ,I am unable to verify if this story is even true and cannot discuss debates that are sparked from unconfirmed sources.
You'll figure it out when ,in the future, few respond to your posts if you don't post the link or the name of the source.
I did take note that according to the story, which cannot be verified, these Black women are old and from the South
I don't where you saw that, I never did. I think you better quit responding, before you insult everyone who works in the office that runs this web-site.
WD,
Donna Brazile , not a huge fanbase here, is from Lousiana and she's no spring chicken.That's where I got my information from.I know she's so very excited to join President Bush at his Holiday White House Celebration.I guess he needs another token photo op.
Speaking of information, care to finally tell me where you got yours from? C'mon tell me.
btw.... ..I'm sorry. Exactly HOW many Blacks work in the office that runs this website ? I would actually be shocked if there was just one.
Good morning FOS and WD (?)
"The Colored girls of the DNC"? What's that? I hope that's not a new description of black women with the DNC. Somebody enlighten me here!
And as for Donna Brazille, she's gettin' to the point that she might as well wear that "colored girl" title. She has allowed herself to get caught up in that Beltway crowd loop. The girl is NOT going with the flow. She's a Dean hater and wants him gone too. Still with that old party crap.
Oh you know she's gettin' kind of tight with Condi, FOS. The two have been seen "doing" lunch. Now as a sister I can read all kinds of things into that, but I'm going for the obvious here which is Donna does have her own consulting firm and we all know that contacts are what keep you afloat and in business. And Condi has the contacts.
But still ....... she's still breaking bread with a woman that shopped for shoes while her ethnic brethern thirsted and starved while packed in a staduim and convention center after one the country's worst natural disasters.
I'm waiting......
Look. I'm not trying to pick a fight. I mean we just met.(LOL) However, as one who has zero tolerance for the very appearance of right-wing spin, I would like to know where these stories are coming from. If I'm going to be expected to read old pre-election dirty laundry about the relationship between Howard Dean and Raum Emanuel , I would like to know if it came from a right-wing website. That's all.It's simple really.
Really.
I'll be back in a few . You'll have the answer for me then right? Just the name of the website or the author and the date should be enough.
;p
btw.... ..I'm sorry. Exactly HOW many Blacks work in the office that runs this website ? I would actually be shocked if there was just one.
Posted by FreedomOfSpeechForWeThePeople on November 29, 2006 at 05:37 AM
Wondered about that too.
Hi J,
Suuuup! ((((Homie!))))
Guess what? We're supposed to be happy that Old Black Democrats like Donna Brazil who accepted an invite to the White House by George Bush, is part of a group that calls themselves "COLORED WOMEN"
Yeah. Are you happy? Whoo Hoo! Yeah! We'z Be COLOREDs.
What a positive lable for Black Women (if true) He won't confirm it with a link.(sarcasim)
;p
But still ....... she's still breaking bread with a woman that shopped for shoes while her ethnic brethern thirsted and starved while packed in a staduim and convention center after one the country's worst natural disasters.
Posted by J on November 29, 2006 at 05:53 AM
Ditto x's 20,000,000 + 75,000,000 - 3. (LOL)
Dean tapped Flournoy to run his transition team, and although she later returned to her job at the teachers’ union, it is now common knowledge among Democrats in Washington that few big decisions are made at the D.N.C. without Flournoy’s approval. The Colored Girls, as a whole, are unusually influential with Dean. It’s an odd pairing, given that Dean governed one of the whitest states in the country, but what Dean
Flournoy was also a charter member of an informal dinner clique whose members referred to themselves, good-naturedly, as the Colored Girls. The core group included several African-American women who had reached the highest echelons of Democratic politics. Donna Brazile, the veteran organizer who managed Gore’s presidential campaign, was a regular; so were Minyon Moore, a consultant who worked in the Clinton White House; Yolanda Caraway, a public-relations specialist; and Leah Daughtry, who was McAuliffe’s chief of staff (and who was retained in that job by Dean). Guest speakers at their dinners frequently included probable presidential candidates and top members of Congress. During the race for chairman, Flournoy brought Dean in as well, and he quickly clicked with the group.
and these women share is resentment, sometimes subtle and sometimes not, of the elite Washington Democrats who have always run the national party. Activists like Flournoy and Brazile have attained star status in the party, but they have never thought of themselves as insiders. This is partly because they are black women in a party dominated by white men — men who often seem to prize them more as symbols of diversity than for their expertise.
Posted by WD on November 29, 2006 at 03:23 AM
Now WD if this is true, Sistahs behind the scenes pulling the strings and making things work, (don't we always) it would explain a few things. Only thing is that Donna Brazille has chastised Dean publicly at least twice about making statements that he shouldn't have (though I noticed he hasn't done it any more).
As for being prized for their diversity more than their skills and abilites, I can definitely identify with that. The fact that white men with corporate ties had been running the party is a known fact.
Do you have anything to substantiate this?
What a positive lable for Black Women (if true) He won't confirm it with a link.(sarcasim)
;p
Posted by FreedomOfSpeechForWeThePeople on November 29, 2006 at 06:09 AM
I can buy this explanation of WD's, but give me some info with a link. But you know what FOS, I think it is true, but WD can't give it a link because it was TOLD to him by someone within the DNC hierarchy. The women probably did PRIVATELY call themselves the "colored girls" because of the way they were treated by the white men running the show in the DNC.
J,
Interesting. I guess then, in the wake of Micheal Richards, COLORED is the new N*gger ? I mean, I thought we just went through that.
No more using words that are demeaning to Blacks.Period! Sheeeze!I mean,
Why can't they learn, J ? Why ?
I swear. One day we'll hear a rap song about "Porch Monkeys" like it's cool.
LOL
Think about it FOS, this has probably been the underlying reason for the big problem with Dean. All the insiders know that he is being advised and LISTENING to a group of veteran DNC black women who KNOW the ropes.
They have probably sat with Dean and helped strategized the 50 State Strategy. And the Beltway crowd do not like it and want one of their own beside Dean to keep him corraled in such as the suggestion of Ford Jr. by Carville to be chairman of the DNC. Oh that crowd knows that The public won't stand for the ouster of Dean but they figure that with Ford by Dean's side he can "handle" the black women that Dean consults with.
Ha! that's a joke though. Ford handle those sisters. They will "handle" him.
I personally think the term "colored" is from a bygone era and should stay there. As for the "n", you can thank the ushered in era of the conservatives which has been the last decade for that usage. They have made it no secret that they have no use for people of color, any color.
You know when you have a presidential administration that doesn't give a damn about black folks, red ones, yellow or any other color that's a signal to the country - well follow my lead. Add then throw in the Christian Right with their intolerance for anything that they don't deem holy and you have an atmosphere ripe for the spewing of the "n" word and any other ethnic slur.
Ha! that's a joke though. Ford handle those sisters. They will "handle" him.
Posted by J on November 29, 2006 at 06:30 AM
Ha! No doubt! (again,if this is all true. I'm still waiting)
Ford? He can't even tame a wh....never mind. (jk)
;p
Good Morning FOS! Hello J and WD.
Just a quick drive by this morning on my way to work. Looks like many long posts and some I have a hard time understanding but hey it's early!
January 1 can't get here fast enough!
Have a great day all.
I swear. One day we'll hear a rap song about "Porch Monkeys" like it's cool.
LOL
Posted by FreedomOfSpeechForWeThePeople on November 29, 2006 at 06:25 AM
Yeah, I hear ya. I guess that's why I have to stay ready for battle. Always the warrior, never time for any rest :)
Ford? He can't even tame a wh....never mind. (jk)
;p
Posted by FreedomOfSpeechForWeThePeople on November 29, 2006 at 06:40 AM
Don't even go there! I hear ya.
J,
Oh sure. Just go to the ADL website and the FBI website. You will see that after 2000, when Bush took over, there has been an increase in Hate Crimes and Racial Separtists marches and demonstrations. The numbers don't lie. Anti-Semitism is way up, Police brutality against Blacks skyrocketed , Anti-Latino sentiment booming, Racial Profiling of Middle Easterners through the roof.
When Republicans are in charge,they fuel bigotry. It's like a reverse "Free At Last" for a certain group of freaks within a certain group of folks that shall remain unamed.When Democrats are in charge,that mess is supressed because they know better.Cha Ghing, Cha Ching, let the "mans" cash register ring.See you in court.
Don't even go there! I hear ya.
Posted by J on November 29, 2006 at 06:49 AM
Bye, J.
Pssssst! Call me!
ROFLMAO!
good morning friends and neighbors. strange blog stuff yesterday...but as the beatles sang...that was yersterday and yesterdays gone.
morning fos and j.
gregg,
"Don't stop...thinking about tomorrow...."
;p
Morning.
56 degrees forecast for today here, gregg. And, even warmer tomorrow.
why does newt gingrich get any air time at all. its amazing that after running the congress for the past 12 years the republicans have not developed any leaders who can show their faces in public so this cretin gets lots of coverage? hopefully he and delay will make up their 08 ticket.
Dear Morning People,
Please excuse last nights pillow fight. To make it up to you, here's something juicy to think about.
This past Congressional Election saw a large victory for the Blogoshphere.By now, pundnts, while publically denying it, have had enough time to look at the House Race victories and the fact that many who won recieved mass support from the Blogs.
Now all of a sudden, Newt Gingrich Fmr.House Speaker has called for a change in the rules with respect to Feedom Of Speech and the Internet. I posted about it. I think you will be very interested to know that the Republicans have absolutly no intentions of working with the Democrats in a bi-partisan fashion.
Click on my name to find out how I came to this conclusion. Other than the fact that it's obvious,I now have proof to back up this assertion.
Peace.
i know cyn. i guess a big storm comes thru friday or something and things will change. anyhow a good day to dig up the cap to the septic tank and have it pumped out...ewwwww!
still can't believe we won the house and senate!!!!!
There is a gay agenda -- winning elections
Gay millionaires and their allies poured unprecedented sums into the 2006 election -- and it worked.
By Kerry Eleveld
fos, i don't see much evidence of a pillow fight...is it wd you are referring to or did some stuff get cleaned out?
morning fade.
back on the front lines of the war on christmas:
No room in the plaza for `Nativity Story'
City advises against film ads at holiday fest
By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporters Manya A. Brachear and Margaret Ramirez contributed to this report
Published November 29, 2006
oh yeah now i see it. this stuff about old black women from the south. j must be delighted. as an old white guy from the north i think it might be a good idea to ask people how they would like to be stereotyped and then respect it...and it they would rather not be stereotyped...respect that.
fade, i have covered my roof with axle grease so santa and the deer will slide off into the bramble bushes that encase the house.
i have also joined the neighborhood happiness watch that goes around telling everyone christmas is on the 26th this year replacing the little animals in creches with toy devil creatures...god i love the war on christmas!
fade, i had no idea about this! this is wonderful stuff. i will send it along to lizzy who as you know worked for hall from the very beginning:
Nov. 29, 2006 | Five weeks before the 2004 election, Rep. Sue Kelly, N.Y.-19 , made what seemed to be a safe move for a six-term Republican congresswoman accustomed to winning reelection by comfortable margins. Like 226 other members of the U.S. House, she voted to pass the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have altered the U.S. Constitution to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.
Sure enough, the residents of Kelly's Hudson Valley district returned the moderate Republican to Congress that November with 67 percent of the vote. Voting for a constitutional amendment she had once vowed to oppose seemed to have few negative consequences for her politically -- and so she did it again in July 2006. To the degree either vote was noticed, they mostly helped quiet talk of a future GOP primary challenge from the right.
But at least one constituent who did take notice of what Kelly had done also took offense. This September, openly gay businessman Adam Rose wrote a $500,000 check to Majority Action, a so-called 527 political advocacy group, for the express purpose of unseating Sue Kelly in the November election.
"When she made that vote," explained Rose, "I took a look at the political environment, and I said there's nothing I can do about who's president. There's nothing I can do about the fact that Republicans control both houses [of Congress]. However, here is one thing I can have an impact on." Rose's half-million meant that Democratic challenger John Hall was actually able to compete with Kelly financially --- and topple the once-safe incumbent this past Election Day in a race decided by fewer than 5,000 votes...
still hasn't sunk in--we won the House and the Senate...as likely as baggin' a five-legged deer
a bit more from the salon piece fade cited...there is alot more to it than the ny 19 stuff but that is what is my focus being from ny 20. both lizzy's guy hall won in 19 and my gal gillibrand won in 20. six months before the election neither was seen as having a very good chance...boy it is as much fun to relive good things as it is painful to relive bad...
...In New York, Adam Rose's goals were far more narrow. Rose, whose previous largest single donation was $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee, doesn't even believe in 527s and PACs. "I honestly think that federal campaigns should be publicly funded with identical dollars for every candidate. But this is the current system."
Rose didn't want to flip a state legislature. He only wanted to take out Sue Kelly. "I just refused to live in a district with a representative who voted the way she voted," said Rose. Besides the $500,000 he contributed to Majority Action, he gave maximum donations of $25,000 each to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and he maxed out at $2,100 to Hall's campaign.
Unseating Rep. Kelly was an uphill battle from the start. Most strategists, Democratic and Republican, considered her seat safe. Not until the final weeks of the elections did it qualify for the DCCC's targeted Red to Blue campaign, which funneled money toward races seen as potential Democratic pickups.
But according to Jeff Cook, an openly gay Republican in the district who explored a primary challenge to Rep. Kelly, she was always vulnerable in both the primary and the general election.
"Her vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment, like her vote on Terri Schiavo, placed her outside the mainstream of the district," said Cook, "but also the Republican Party in the district," said Cook. His internal polling showed voters in the 19th District were equally divided between supporting gay marriage and opposing it, but he added that they were "overwhelmingly opposed to a constitutional amendment."
Cook said the building national wave and Kelly's failure to establish a persona separate from the Republican Party formed a perfect storm for her defeat.
"She lost because she ran a poor campaign, Democrats were energized in the 19th District and because her cash advantage was neutralized by Adam Rose," he said. "I don't think you can say his $500,000 was why she lost, but I think it was a critical component."...
god i love the war on christmas!
Posted by gregg on November 29, 2006 at 07:59 AM
amen, my brotha...let the battles begin! there is a spectacular photo spread in the Trib (click on the link above) that has all these great pics of kids crying with Santa. i don't know how to link on it, but i'm going to be laughing all the way today...good stuff!
have a wonderful day and gloat all you want! i know i will.
my dad told me to tug on Santa's beard when I was four years old, and the corresponding photo shows Santa holding my hands down...more good stuff!
I'd rather the F.B.I. take over those operations and do away with a local Police Force force alltogether, but that's just a pipe dream.
Posted by FreedomOfSpeechForWeThePeople on November 29, 2006 at 02:38 AM
Local governments are losing funding in all states. My county commissioners had to cut the sheriff's budget to run the county (not to mention add another $75,000 to the election budget...HAVA more fun all the time!)
Martial law with a state policing will be here soon enough.
I prefer an elected sheriff and town marshall that I know by name & family.
Close Adviser to Rice Plans to Resign
Zelikow said yesterday that advocates on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "over-read my remarks to make the arguments they wanted to make." But he noted that Rice will travel to the Middle East this week to assemble a coalition to "execute a regional approach to Mideast issues."
Local governments are losing funding in all states. My county commissioners had to cut the sheriff's budget to run the county (not to mention add another $75,000 to the election budget...HAVA more fun all the time!)
Jacque, not to worry. Law enforcement is big business in NY. Here, they arrest you whether you commit a crime or not. We just finished representing a pregnant mother of 2 that was arrested for allegedly being with someone who entered a vacant house and threw an empty paint can out the window. These kinds of arrests and the prosecution thereof keep the cops and prosecutors sucking off the political tit. It's really quite sickening, as many of the accused can't afford an attorney and the public defenders are overworked.
OK, rant over. ;-)
Citizenship Agency Lost 111,000 Files
"It only takes one missing file of somebody with links to a terrorist organization to become an American citizen," said Grassley, who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. "We can't afford to be handing out citizenship with blinders on."
Good morning, all.
Bah Humbug. So a bunch of actors portraying a diety and his family are going to be banned from the town square. Big deal. They are actors, people. Not the original article. There used to be a time when actors were run out of town on a rail for being too creative.
Actually, I have nothing against the actors. It's the marketing folks who pushed their way into these holiday festivities that make me angry.
It's like Ronalad McDonald showing up in the schoolroom teaching kids in China how to eat.
I've worked in promotions myself. But sometimes it's just is too much showing up unannounced and hawking tickets to something you can get free at church. If you want a live nativity scene, go to the pagent the little children at your own house of worship are going to present on Christmas Eve.
Talk about crass commercialism of holy events. I suppose this is just an extention of the 700 Club rip off merchanising. Why should Robertson, Falwell and the rest of the big box religious gang get all the money in the collection plate?
I know, it's Christmas. I should lighten up and pass the popcorn. Ho, Ho, Ho.
fade, you always make my day with these stories. Did you see where some Denver suburban neighborhood was banning peace sign wreaths calling them Satanic?
But he noted that Rice will travel to the Middle East this week to assemble a coalition to "execute a regional approach to Mideast issues."
Posted by Esmeralda on November 29, 2006 at 08:20 AM
Essie, she's organizing another coalition of the unwilling? Hope she's packed her burka and AK47. It seems like Rice has lost more staff lately than Katherine Harris.
Dubai firm expects bids for U.S. ports
A Dubai-owned company will accept final bids within two weeks for the sale of all $700 million worth of its U.S. port operations to an American buyer, a plan forced by concerns over terrorism security.
still hasn't sunk in--we won the House and the Senate...as likely as baggin' a five-legged deer
Posted by fade2bluz on November 29, 2006 at 08:04 AM
This is priceless. What does a find like this signify in American Indian lore? I know that spotting a White Buffalo mean good fortune.
A five legged deer sounds more like a ecological sign of something a lot more threatening. Or an indication that there's a new Tim Allen Santa Clause movie premiering. Ho, ho, ho.
Gotta run. later.
hiya, Sandy. Rice gives me the ebbie jebbies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Drizzly rain here in the rolling hills of SE OH. No laundry on the line the next couple of days.
I'm off to the dentist & then the chiropractor.
Enjoy the day, everyone.
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