Sunday Open Thread
Chat away...
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good morning progressives...the light of neocon/ayn rand/greed is good...rule of our country is dying off and a new light of collective effort to build a better world for future generations must begin to shine.
Yes, gregg, all that and the Yankees have a chance to redeem themselves today!
Mayor George W. Giuliani, Governor George W. Romney, and a Larry Craig Congress
by P.M. Carpenter | Oct 7 2007 - 9:02am |
article tools: email | print | read more P.M. Carpenter
If front-runners they be -- and they are, what with Newt bowing out upon reading campaign finance laws on the morning of his presidential-bid announcement, what with John struggling to find pocket change for his bus's gas, and what with Fred doing ... well, no one is really clear on that -- then Rudy and Mitt are merely the most conspicuous faces of the coming Republican calamity.
On the presidential side of 2008, the calamity will come mostly as a result of conspicuous modern-day Republicanism, which is to say, Rudy and Mitt are suicidally tying themselves to the conspicuously disastrous policies -- dare I say, philosophy? -- of George W. Bush.
Despite our fiscal plight that makes even the stoutest of economic minds spin, Mitt is running around key primary states bellowing, in effect, Wallacesque anachronisms -- "Tax cuts today, tax cuts tomorrow, tax cuts forever." It hasn't seemed to dawn on Mitt that a sizeable slice of traditional Republicans know the fiscal jig is up, the Bushian tax-cutting party is over.
From the great Robert Parry:
Why Not Impeachment?
by Robert Parry | Oct 6 2007 - 1:30pm |
article tools: email | print | read more Robert Parry
The disclosure that the Bush administration secretly reestablished a policy of abusing “war on terror” detainees even as it assured Congress and the public that it had mended its ways again raises the question: Why are the Democrats keeping impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney “off the table”?
After the Democratic congressional victory last Nov. 7, Washington Democrats rejected calls for impeachment from rank-and-file Democrats and many other Americans, considering it an extreme step that would derail a bipartisan strategy of winning over Republicans to help bring the Iraq War to an end.
That thinking got a boost on Nov. 8, the day after the election, when President Bush announced the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the appointment of former CIA Director Robert Gates, who had been a member of the Iraq Study Group and was believed to represent the “realist” wing of the Republican Party.
One Democratic strategist called me that day with a celebratory assertion that “the neocons are dead” and rebuffed my warning that Gates had a troubling history of putting his career ahead of principle, that he was a classic apple-polisher to the powerful. [See the Consortiumnews.com’s Archive, “Who Is Bob Gates?”]
The Democrats also missed the fact that Rumsfeld submitted his resignation the day before the election – not the day after – along with a memo urging an “accelerated draw-down of U.S. bases” in Iraq from a high of 110, to 10 to 15 by April 2007, and to five by July 2007.
In other words, Rumsfeld’s ouster didn’t signal Bush’s new flexibility on ending the war, as the Democrats hoped, but a repudiation of Rumsfeld for going wobbly on Iraq.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/10327
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Still more than enough time and reason to impeach both Shooter and Chimpo.
Bush and Torture
by Dave Lindorff | Oct 6 2007 - 1:12pm |
article tools: email | print | read more Dave Lindorff
President Bush says America "doesn't torture people."
He has said this before. The last time it was when Congress had been confronted with the atrocities at the US military-run Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, and was passing legislation that would outlaw torture.
That was when we learned for the first time about the president's unique and un-Constitutional practice of issuing a "signing statement" upon signing a bill into law, declaring quietly that since he is commander in chief in the so-called "war" on terror, he doesn't have to enact laws passed by Congress. He issued one of those little addenda to the torture bill, recall, in which he said he wouldn't be bound by it.
At the same time, he assured Congress and all Americans that he was repulsed by torture, and that America would never torture.
Turns out that was a flat-out lie. At the urging of ueber-President Dick Cheney, Bush's new Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in 2005, wrote up a memo authorizing all the worst torture abuses--simulated drowning, slapping around and sleep deprivation, for example--which Congress had specifically banned.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/10324
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Chimpo lie? Nah, can't be not the Chimpo. Snark.
When has he told the truth? Not too often.
The question is what are we going to do about it!
Later ...
Have youever had one of those days when you just don't want to get our of bed? I had one today. I awoke to find that teh daog had ccrapped in my bed.
I think I will just stay beneath the sheets and enjoy the aroma.
Have youever had one of those days when you just don't want to get our of bed? I had one today. I awoke to find that teh daog had ccrapped in my bed.
I think I will just stay beneath the sheets and enjoy the aroma.
There are NO dogs sleeping in NO beds around this house.
u sick pukes
still stealing names? how pathetic
Michael Link are you still hear?
The TROLL HARBLOW has been stealing my old name DAWNIE which I quit using about a week ago.
Please feel free to destroy it!
Thank you.
Glad I popped by to see CYN's list of programs.
{{thankyou madame}} ;-)
This website really does keep UP and it's been busy lately!!
Psychologists say conservatism is a mental illness
Republican philanderer and hypocrite
Newt Gingrich was cheating on his
wife while denouncing President Bill Clinton's extramarital affair
Republican serial killer Ted Bundy
was hired by the Republican Party
Republican activist Matthew Glavin,
who preached family values, was caught
masturbating in public and fondling
an undercover park ranger
Dick Nixon organized a burglary while
president and engaged in
criminal activity to cover it up
Republican anti-abortion activist
Neal Horsley admitted to having
sex with a mule
Republican Congressman
Edward Schrock resigned from
Congress after he was caught searching for sex on a gay telephone service.
Listen to his telephone calls by
clicking these files: File 1, File 2
Republican Mayor Jim West
championed an anti-gay agenda,
but was later found to be gay himself
Republican voter Timothy McVeigh
bombed Oklahoma City
Republican preacher Jimmy Swaggart
preached fidelity, but cheated on
his wife with a prostitute
Republican Party Chairman Sam Walls,
who is married, was urged to drop his
candidacy for Congress when it was found he likes to dress up
in women's clothing
Republican Congressman Bob Livingston was planning to vote for
impeaching President Clinton
for sexual improprieties until
it was disclosed he is an adulterer
Republican Congressman Henry Hyde
denounced President Clinton's extramarital affair, but was later found
to be an adulterer himself
Pastor Ted Haggard, president of the
30-million member National Association of Evangelicals, denounced gays and illegal drugs but was later exposed as a gay Crystal Meth user
Republican Senator Bob Packwood
resigned from Congress after 29
women accused him of sexual harrassment
REPUBLICAN SEX OFFENDERS
Exposing the hypocrisy of Republican Family Values
no one believes liars with no links and I'm assuming your dick is so small no one has ever been able to BLOW IT for you!!!!! LMAO!
You're more optimistic than most Yankee fans, Cyn_NY.
Posted by MichaelLink on October 7, 2007 at 09:45 AM
Hey, Michael, we Dems have learned to never give up!
{{{Dawn}}}, sorry to see your old name has been highjacked by the troll. You must be getting under it's skin. ;-)
LOL @ trolls being judge for ZILCH
Ok folks I'll BBL I hope they clear the toxic dirt out of here soon. Don't believe the liars! They are so scared of being erased completely that they fight toothless and nail to stay here. Pitiful Perverts, Liars, Thieves and Frauds.
Peace
Why is the US Northern Command going to have War Games this October 15-20? When we have 2 real Wars going on? And how much money will be wasted in this Game? More than enough to pay for SCHIP I bet!
Israel is the one that stated if Iran harms them they will be wiped out!So is Little Bully Bush wanting War with Iran because of the Oil he wants to Steal or is it the fact that Iran has a Nuclear Power Plant?
Bush Hired 10,000 South African Apartheid Mercenaries For Iraq Hotlist
by davefromqueens [Subscribe]
Sun Oct 07, 2007 at 07:51:13 AM PDT
It's not just Blackwater.
George Bush is stealing American tax dollars by the billions and siphoning off our tax dollars to pay for private killers and murderers (a.k.a. mercenaries) who are murdering Iraqi civilians by the day.
And almost 10,000 of these private killers have been hired from South Africa's apartheid mercenaries
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-mercenaries_salopek_bdoct07,1,2988737.story
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See Chicago Tribune article linked above for further details.
Blackwater crushed car with three kids, old man to avoid traffic: former US official
10/06/2007 @ 12:37 pm
Filed by John Byrne
Janessa Gans, a visiting political science professor at Principia College who served as a US official in Iraq from 2003 to 2005, opened fire on the private security contractor Blackwater in Saturday's edition of the Los Angeles Times.
Advertisement
"When the Iraqi government last month demanded the expulsion of Blackwater USA, the private security firm, I had one reaction: It's about time," she begins in an editorial.
Gans says she witnessed firsthand "over-the-top zeal" of the behemoth US mercenary force.
"We would careen around corners, jump road dividers, reach speeds in excess of 100 mph and often cross over to the wrong side of the street, oncoming traffic be damned," she writes. "I began to wonder whether my meetings, intended to further U.S. policy goals and improve the lives of Iraqis, were doing more harm than good. With our drivers honking at, cutting off, pelting with water bottles (a favorite tactic) and menacing with weapons anyone in their way, how many enemies were we creating?"
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Former_US_official_breaks_silence_I_1006.html
An Exit Toward Soul-Searching
As Bush Staffers Leave, Questions About Legacy Abound
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 7, 2007; Page A01
It had been four days since Meghan O'Sullivan left her job at the White House. Just four days since she gave up her Secret Service pass, her classified hard drive and her entree to the president. Four days since she gave up any day-to-day responsibility for Iraq.
Too soon, evidently, for the dreams to end. "In fact, I was dreaming about Iraq last night," she said. "And I woke up and thought, 'When do you think this will stop?' "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/06/AR2007100601521.html?hpid=topnews
Starting with ray-gun, California no longer gives a damn about higher education. All the repukes care about is tax cuts and privatizing every f'ing thing including our public universities. I AM SICK OF IT!
In 1970, the state spent 6.9 percent of its budget on the University of California. Today, at 3.2 percent, it spends less than half. In 1965, the state covered 94.4 percent of a UC student's education. Last year it paid 58.5 percent.
This year, California will spend an estimated $3.3 billion to operate UC. It will spend three times as much to run the state's prisons.
Administrators and faculty are also concerned that the University of California and the 23-campus California State University will become de facto private institutions where most of the costs are paid by students.
University leaders say the two public institutions are the state's engine of long-term growth and its main supplier of highly skilled workers. Their importance to state policymakers, however, is declining when measured in tax dollars
"There is this myth out there that citizens can get better roads, cleaner air, get their garbage picked up twice a week, be protected by police and fire and it won't cost them anything," Reed said.
Reed predicts that within five years the state will be spending more on prisons than on UC, CSU and the community colleges combined.
"That will be a real tragedy in this state," he said. "It will send out the signal that California has world-class prisons and second-class universities. If we had better-prepared citizens, a better-prepared workforce, we would have less need for prisons."
State funding squeeze erodes California's public universities
THANK YOU YOU DIRTBAG REPUKES! THEIR MOTTO: SCREW ANYONE WHO IS NOT A MILLIONAIRE. HOW DARE THEY TAX THE RICH TO MAKE THINGS BETTER FOR ALL CITIZENS.
bak
Hey JE!
How goes your Sunday? I am not here long but wanted to check back in to make sure the McVie/Bundy team were not wreaking havoc on our blog........ I see they are still here trying to pretend some normalcy all the while they are rotting from the inside out.
Good Afternoon Dawn,
The trolls are spreading filth. We should have called the exterminator.
Man, it was cold this morning. It was 39 degrees. This morning I turned on my pellet stove for the first time.
i see the creationist, christian, keyboard warriors are here today. i guess they got thrown out of reverend haggart's sermon this morning...
Ok I'm off to watch the Panthers game and then the BUCs kick the COLTS AZZzzz at 4pm.
You all have a great afternoon! I'll save you some cake from my Gals BDay.
HUGS/Peace
The Senate approved an intelligence bill quietly last week, but unfortunately "most of the bill is secret".
Afternoon Sunny,
I am sick of this secretive administration. Everything is secret to them even their criminal activities.
Hey greggy, maybe you and JE could come up some weekend and between the three of us we could really have a good time.
Inbetween we can discuss politics and how much we hate Bush.
half time TIE score
you trolls are really a perverted bunch - old bundy and Mcvie over there - two real GOOD examples of repugnants!!
Republican serial killer Ted Bundy - aka Sally
was hired by the Republican Party
Republican voter Timothy McVeigh - aka harpo
bombed Oklahoma City
Repukes hold the CROWN for PERVERTS and DEVIANTS
that's all they can talk about
they have no other thoughts in their little twisted minds
their 2nd favorite activity other than perverted hideous sex with blow up dolls and animals includes STEALING! ANything they can but it includes other bloggers names.
This is why I am pro-death penalty. There is NO medical help for these kinds of non - humans. Like rabid dogs. THey just must be put down. Period. jmo.
Newsweek Poll
Do you believe American voters would elect a woman to the White House in 2008? * 13042 responses
Where Will the 2008 Presidential Race Be Decided?
A. The Northwest;
B. The Southwest;
C. The Plains States;
D. The South; or
E. North-South Border States.
THE ANSWER IS...
The Southwest
why goes dog crap oatmael hurass everbody who he disgrees with him
afternoon john. finished the waste lines just now. be nice to push a few trolls through like pipeline pigs to blow out the air....and dump them in the septic tank:)
Posted by gregg on October 7, 2007 at 03:22 PM
there ya go! ;-)
gregg,
That's great. It looks like you are doing most of the work yourself. That really takes a lot of confidence. I can't even cut a straight line on my table saw. I do a fairly good job with electrical.
Last spring I dug out my septic tank covers for the first and last time. What a pain in the ass. It only takes a few minutes to pump the tank but to dig out the covers takes a day or two. I went to a local septic tank contractor and found out that he sells covers that lie on the surface so all I have to do next time is pull the cover and pump. He told me that they are required here now. It consists of a section of the heavy-duty white translucent poly pipe about 18 inches in diameter and about 18 inches long. On the top is fastened a circular concrete frame with a concrete cover that fits snugly into the poly. How slick.
When I had my house built in 2002 I should have had the contractor separate the grey water from the shower and washer but I didn't think of it at the time. In that manner I could use this water for irrigation.
You know what would be neat is if the DNC was to put a countdown counter on this blog for bush and cheney and the 35 infamous lock-steppers in congress.
WASH POST....WHY ARE BUSHIES WORRIED ABOUT HOW HISTORY WILL JUDGE THEM?
I don't understand what "history" all these Bushies are "wondering" about. As s leader in the Conservative movement when they were all young, I know what was their thesis: we are all mediocrities, let's face it, and we can only get ahead by thinking out of the [TRUTH] box. It's OK because we'll never have power type responsibilities. Sitting on each of their faces are the next above pecking order occupiers that must be swallowed whole through jaw dislocation, as do snakes, so they can get ahead on their rightwing cannibalistic bureaucracies. But responsibilities that come with the presidency-- especially headed by such a fraud-- never seemed remotely possible for them to achieve. Though totally skill-less and clue-less, they all got big "loyalty" jobs beyond their abilities so they leave behind a presidency of lies and secrets to cover-up their utter technical incompetence. They all think of themselves as "wordsmiths." When Bartlett said on PBS: "This president has to prove that he can walk AND chew gum at the same time," he finally told truth-- but until he quit he had to lie that Bush did that. Because they are all carrion "hunters," live Dems scared them off. Only Rove is insanely courageous...but he is too unskilled not to get caught so Bush dumped him as he did the Rumsfeld-neocons cabal. Now Bush is the decider and can't make decisions so he "perseverates," a neurological term for brain damage syndrome as, for example, from neurotoxins like booze and cocaine.
Daniel E. Teodoru
An Exit Toward Soul-Searching
As Bush Staffers Leave, Questions About Legacy Abound
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 7, 2007; A01
It had been four days since Meghan O'Sullivan left her job at the White House. Just four days since she gave up her Secret Service pass, her classified hard drive and her entree to the president. Four days since she gave up any day-to-day responsibility for Iraq.
Too soon, evidently, for the dreams to end. "In fact, I was dreaming about Iraq last night," she said. "And I woke up and thought, 'When do you think this will stop?' "
As President Bush's top Iraq adviser while the war sank into an abyss over the past few years, O'Sullivan lived it every waking hour -- and many of the sleeping ones. The dreams came every night, often prosaic, sometimes straight out of a war movie, filled with violence and menace. It was, she said, "all consuming."
Now she has left a White House under siege, part of a parade of longtime aides who have headed for the door in recent months exhausted, sometimes discouraged and wrestling with the legacy of their experience. Karl Rove feels guilty for leaving in a time of war, yet he wants to reinvent himself as more than simply "the Bush guy." Peter H. Wehner rues lost friendships with those estranged by the war. Dan Bartlett is relieved to shed the burden of worrying that any day could bring another terrorist attack.
They left for different reasons -- new professional opportunities, a gentle or not-so-gentle nudge, young kids, the hope of having young kids -- but the cumulative exodus of so many key people at once has transformed the White House as it heads into the dwindling months of the Bush presidency. Rove and Bartlett are gone, and so are their fellow Texans, Harriet E. Miers and Alberto R. Gonzales. Tony Snow, Sara M. Taylor, Rob Portman, J.D. Crouch, Peter D. Feaver, J. Scott Jennings and a host of others have left.
There is so much turnover that on one recent Friday there were four farewell parties or last-day exits. Bush poses for so many Oval Office photos with departing aides it feels like an assembly line. Officials said the transition is a function of so many aides having stayed longer than in past White Houses. "When you look at the people who are leaving, these are people who have been here since the beginning," said Liza Wright, who herself left last month as White House personnel director. "And it's a killer of a job."
All the more so in a White House beset by an intractable war, a hostile Congress, a shipwrecked domestic agenda and near-historic-low approval ratings. The long-term ideals that many of them came to the White House to pursue appear jeopardized, even discredited to many. They tell themselves that they have acted on principle, that the decisions they helped make will be vindicated. But they cannot be sure.
"There's this overriding awareness that we're living and acting for the judgment of history," said William Inboden, who resigned last month as senior director for strategic planning at the National Security Council.
And as history judges, Iraq is always there. "It constantly looms," he said. "It is the inescapable presence, the inescapable reality. You see it in all these ways. People. Time. Money. Diplomatic and political capital. It sort of becomes the reality you live with and obviously we have to be able to."
'There's a Cost'
The White House under the best of circumstances is a pressure cooker that burns out its denizens in short order. Presidential aides arrive at 6 or 6:30 a.m. and do not leave until 8 at night or sometimes later. Even then, they remain tethered to the job through always-buzzing mobile telephones and BlackBerries.
The messages crossing those BlackBerries have been relentlessly negative the last few years. And some have grown embittered at what has become of the presidency they helped build. A key Bush reelection strategist has disavowed him, his former U.N. ambassador has become a vocal critic of key policies, his former defense secretary says he does not miss him, his former speechwriter wrote a harsh takedown of another top aide.
One former senior official said nearly everyone who has left the administration is angry in some way or another -- at the president for making bad decisions, at his staff for misguiding him, at events that have spiraled out of control. Others called that an exaggeration. Either way, interviews with a dozen top aides who left in recent months reveal a profound sense of ambivalence about the ultimate outcome of their work beyond toppling Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
"I know the intentions were noble and the arguments to go to war -- we believed there were weapons of mass destruction and he was a malevolent figure," said Wehner, who was White House director of strategic initiatives until August. "The fact that it didn't go so well is something you struggle with."
Wehner, who recalled losing sleep in 2006 when the war seemed to be further slipping away, blames former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "It was mishandled in a lot of ways," he said. "The administration went in with a plausible approach and a plausible strategy, but it was wrong. The secretary of defense didn't make the adjustments that he ought to have and there's a cost to that and that's something you live with."
The subsequent troop buildup, Wehner added, has given him hope again. "I think we have a decent shot at a decent outcome," he said. "But mistakes were made and there's a cost to it."
One cost has been friendship. Some people who were once close no longer talk with him, Wehner said. "The view is 'Pete was a nice guy, but he was taken over by the dark side, joined Rove world.' "
One who shares that view is journalist Joe Klein. "There are a number of us who were friendly with Pete back in the day who think he drank the Kool-Aid," Klein said. In May, Klein used his Time magazine blog to directly challenge a Wehner essay on politics and the war, chastising his onetime friend for ignoring "the lives lost and shattered" and the "vast damage" to U.S. standing done by the Iraq war. "I have two pieces of career advice," Klein wrote to Wehner. "Stop writing this swill and think about penance. Take some time to clear your head, a lot of time, and pay for your sins by emptying bedpans at Walter Reed."
Asked about such criticism, Wehner said he did not want to discuss anyone in particular. But he said he has been pained by the personal estrangements caused by the war. "We were friends," he said, "and I'm sad about that."
'Is This Worth It?'
Probably no one in the White House has seen Iraq up close more than Meghan O'Sullivan. She served as an adviser to initial U.S. occupation Administrator L. Paul Bremer in Baghdad before Bush brought her to the White House, where she became deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan. When she decided to move on last spring, Bush asked her to wait for a few months and spend the summer in Iraq helping to push political leaders there toward reconciliation, a task as yet incomplete.
The dreams followed her home. "I'm not dreaming of Iraq imploding or anything like that," she said. "But I'm often in Iraq. Or I'll dream about something Iraq-related or something that's happening. Sometimes it might be particularly movielike. But a lot of it is just because I'm processing what I've done all day." The now-former aide corrected herself: "What I did all day."
O'Sullivan was at the center of some of the most important decisions about Iraq, including some blamed for exacerbating the tensions, but she also takes pride in helping write what became an early draft of the new Iraqi constitution and helping usher in democratic elections. The daughter of a schoolteacher and an engineer in Lexington, Mass., she used to assign herself reports on the world in the second grade. One day she wrote a report on Palestine, only to have a teacher keep her after school to explain, "There is no more Palestine."
Her intelligence and passion for Iraq impressed Bush and other admirers, but some on the ground bristled at what they saw as micromanagement from Washington -- "the term 7,000-mile screwdriver was invented for Meghan," groused one official -- and her youth made others think she was in over her head. She turned 38 the day of Bush's latest address to the nation on Iraq last month. She has become so identified with Iraq that friends counseled her years ago to get out "because I was going to ruin my career." She ignored them. "I didn't do any of this for personal advancement," she said.
But the war weighs on her. She still thinks regularly of the Iraqi leaders she has known who have been killed. "There is a certain heaviness that one carries with you when you have been in any realm of responsibility over something as serious as this and when there have been so many sacrifices," she said. "That does stay with you and you're conscious of it every day."
She went on: "I never tried to shake that. That's part of reality and it should help shape your thinking. No one who works on a war should be free from thinking of the sacrifices that come with it. You're always thinking: Is this worth it? Is this going to be worth it? What justifies the level of sacrifices on both the U.S. and Iraqi side? I believe as long as the possibility of being successful's there, you can justify continuing the effort."
But she admitted, "I'm a big dreamer." In both senses of the phrase, she added.
'Cards We Were Dealt'
Karl Rove keeps a newspaper picture of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and his wife on the day Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the CIA leak case. Rove says he holds onto it to remember. "I'm really sad about Scooter," he said. Although he does not say it, the picture may also be a reminder of what he avoided.
Rove adamantly denies doing anything wrong, but the investigation, which hung over him for years before special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald decided against seeking an indictment, gave more grist to enemies who see a ruthless, Machiavellian player willing to destroy his critics. Rove sees it the other way around; he sees a hunt for a crime that did not exist.
The investigation, Rove said, was his lowest moment at Bush's side. "It was really hard for me," he said. "I'm not bitter about it. But I'll tell you, my wife is bitter about all the people who carry those little badges that say, 'Press.' "
Foes assumed Rove's resignation as deputy chief of staff was connected to his role in the U.S. attorney firings, but Rove scoffs at that notion. His critics assume all sorts of things he says are not true. "I'm the evil genius," he said, mocking his reputation. More seriously, he said, "I understand there are people out there who really don't like me. And the question is, am I going to let it bother me? I ignore the ugly things that are said." Still, the notoriety comes with an edge. "I'm more conscious of my surroundings when I'm in public places."
The truth, he said, is that he really did leave to spend more time with his wife and college-age son, even if that has left him feeling guilty about leaving Bush. "I told the boss, 'I feel like I'm deserting you in a time of war,' " he said. "But you know, my wife is right. My wife is a two-time cancer survivor. How much time can I ask her to wait? I don't feel sorry for myself."
This was a recurring theme in the course of an hour-long conversation. He is not depressed, he said more than once. "Hey, man, that was my life," he said. "It's not my life now. One of the reasons I don't think I'm depressed is I'm always looking forward."
Rove is not one for dwelling on decisions made or sharing blame for what went wrong. He has harsh words for Democrats who, he said, never accepted Bush as president. But he said he understands the price of the war. "It weighs on you a lot, and if you're not aware of it at the time, you're insane," he said. "People die. People from the same small town in Nevada where I grew up. . . . Is there second-guessing in terms of people hand-wringing? 'Oh my God, if we'd only done it this way'? No. But is there discussion of did this work out the way we expected and if not, why? Yes."
Dan Bartlett speaks in similar terms. As Bush's counselor, Bartlett and Rove often quarreled in the White House. By the end, colleagues said, they barely spoke except in formal meetings. Rove usually favored an in-your-face political strategy, while Bartlett advocated a less aggressive approach. And friends said Bartlett felt that Rove still saw him as the young kid who came to work for him 15 years ago.
Neither wants to talk about that now, and they spoke with each other by telephone recently. Bartlett shares Rove's aversion to revisiting the past. Asked about regrets, Bartlett said, "I can think of a banner on a certain ship," a reference to the infamous "Mission Accomplished" sign behind Bush on the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003. "As far as how the presidency has gone," he said, "these are the cards we were dealt, these were the decisions we made. I learned too much in that job -- you can't second-guess every decision you made."
Bartlett left after his wife had another baby, leaving them with three children under age 4. He is 36 years old. "I feel like 56," he said. "I'm starting to get some of those years back." He has known no profession but working for George W. Bush. "It's really weird to think I've got an entire life ahead of me," he said. But his youth carries an advantage. When he left, he told colleagues, "I'm younger than all of you so I'll write the last book."
Pulling away after so much time is difficult. He started to watch Bush's last news conference on television, then turned it off halfway through after finding himself pacing the room. He still resents the newspaper articles that present Bush as "the most-isolated, stupid moron in America today," but he knows he needs to move on.
One thing he does not miss is the daily briefing on terrorist threats. The myriad dark possibilities and catastrophic scenarios outlined by intelligence agencies shadowed everything the White House did, the ever-present fear that any day might bring another 9/11. "That's the most comforting part, not knowing," he said. "That was the worst thing, knowing. That was hard. You can't make yourself not think about these things."
'About the Lessons Learned'
Leaving the White House can resemble a 12-step program. "The first couple weeks are euphoria because you can sleep and all that," said Sara Taylor, the White House political director who spent eight years working for Bush before leaving in May. "I can't really explain it to you, but when you leave, there's just something that lifts." Then comes the depression. "It hit me in August -- what do I do, how do I function, nobody calls me anymore. It was a month of weirdness. And now I'm back in my groove."
Others describe a sense of withdrawal. One former aide who did not want to be named asked to be put back on a White House e-mail list so he would receive daily communications updates. The day after he left, Inboden kept reaching to his naked hip expecting to find his White House BlackBerry.
Bartlett bought an iPhone to replace his BlackBerry. "I was convinced it was broken on a Sunday afternoon because I literally didn't have a single e-mail all day," he said. "I had my wife send me an e-mail to make sure it was working. It went right through. So to go from 500 e-mails a day to zero was strange."
Most of those who have left in recent months are hitting the speaking circuit, considering book contracts or joining consulting firms. Peter Wehner took a position at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Peter Feaver returned to teach at Duke University, Inboden has been hired to open a think tank in London. Former budget director Rob Portman has gone back to Cincinnati, where he plans to practice law and maybe run for governor.
Rove already has multiple options. While on the phone from Dallas before a meeting on the future Bush library, he excused himself to answer a knock at the hotel door. A package arrived and he ripped it open. "I sign it and suddenly I'm a lot richer," he said with Rovian mirth. What kind of contract, he would not say. It was not a book contract; Bartlett said nearly 20 publishers are competing for Rove's book.
Rove said his book will be worth it. "It will be vicious and slashing," he promised. He sounded as if he was joking. Sort of. But it's not as if he has gone off the reservation. At the end of the interview, he asked that his quotes be sent to the White House first. "I'm still a cog in the great machine," he explained.
But even the cog does not want to be identified solely by his ties to the president. He knows he will go down in history as Bush's "architect," but he thinks he can expand his identity beyond just that. "It's not like my life from here forward is going to be defined by it," he said. "I have a chance to create something else. I'm not just going to be typecast as, 'Oh, that's the Bush guy.' "
As for O'Sullivan, she has taken a fellowship at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government while she ponders her next step. As she approaches age 40, she wanted "to make room for other things in my life," including apple-picking with her niece. Harvard asked her to speak at an Iraq forum a few days after her arrival on campus, but she demurred. It was too soon.
"The first thing I'm going to do is recapture my life," she said. "I'm taking a poetry class here. I'm going to do a triathlon. And I'm going to break all kinds of records on sleep. And then I'm going to devote the time to thinking about what happened, to thinking about the lessons learned."
john, i had my tank emptied about seven years ago and had to dig up the cap which was about a foot or two down so when i was done i put a big rock over it. this year i figured it should be emptied again so i dug and dug but couldn't find the cap...turned out the rock was placed on a slight slope and the ice and thaw moved it about three feet so i had just missed the tank!! i tried to get the extension sleeve but they didn't have the right size and so i filled it back in and placed a rock over it......kinda like that character who keeps pushing the rock up the hill only to have it roll back...
i see little baby harpie is running around smearing itself with feces again. must be weird to be stuck in the anal stage of development at age seventeen.
Harpo,
There you go again talking about the hole in your bottom behind. You have it in your onsite name and every other sentence you write.
Can you please explain to us republican are so fascinated with this lower extremity hole?
Are you one of those dung eaters?
Corporate Tax Income Rates- which has nothing to do with me at all,but if I was in the tax bracket between($100,000-$335,000) for 2007 you would be taxed 39%. Now if your in the (18.333.333-infinity) for 2007 you are taxed at 35%! That just doesn't seem Fair!
Iran & Pakistan will sign a multi-billion dollar gas- pipeline deal in the abscence of India by the end of this October says Top Iraian oil official! Named the Peace-Pipeline(cute) is intended to supply Pakistan and India with much need natural gas to Power the ever growing need for Electricity!
Posted by bush_wants_world_oil_supply on October 7, 2007 at 05:17 PM
I think we should go back to the rates that were in place before ray-gun screwed up our tax system.
They were brutal for some but we were allowed to deduct credit card interest which helped a lot. With the old rates the feds could do so much more good for everyone. For one thing we could make our universities free of tuition so everyone could afford college. We could spend a hell of a lot more on our infrastructure creating jobs up the ying yang. We could provide single payer health care for everyone. We could be on Mars by now building a colony. Instead the Chinese or Russians will be there first and claim it for themselves. We could have cheap alternate fuels rather than oil. Our economy would be so much more vibrant.
Trickle down economics sucks big time. It doesn't work worth a damn. I feel that the country has suffered tremendously from trickle down economics because the money does not trickle down. A lot of rich people still have the first dollar they ever earned and are too cheap to help anyone but themselves. ray-gun certainly did not have a degree in economics and his dunce cap must have slipped over his eyes when he came up with the trickle down economics crap.
the only hatred i see is from harpo and JohnFitzgeraldOatmeal
Good day all,
Did you get to see Venus and the moon next to the giant blue star Regulus, and I think Saturn this morning?
Wow, what a Dawn.
Posted by HybridFuel on October 7, 2007 at 05:05 PM
Hybrid, I've noticed the same thing. They seem to get caught up on (in?) certain body parts and the functions of those parts. Weird trait.
So the same Pipeline (Peace-Pipeline) which was discussed in 1997 with Unocal inviting the Taliban to Texas (since the Taliban was in control of Afghanistan at the time) is soon to be starting construction, it seems.So it takes 10 years and the Attack on America with the US invasion of Afghanistan(as we were told for hunting down terrorists)& Iraq(weapons of mass destruction) to supply Oil & Gas to Pakistan & India. By Not Math Disabled just a simple Typo.
Good Afternoon, ALL (except the trolls, of course).
It is so hot and humid here that they had to cut short the Chicago Marathon at the half way point for any runner who didn't pass it before a set time. 1 runner died from heat exhaustion, and the latest reports say that over 300 runners were taken to various hospitals. The CTA is waiving bus and L fares for anyone wearing their number bib. The CTA also put air conditioned busses all along the route for use as cooling stations.
It's a good thing that the Cubs lost last night, because the 43,000 runners would have been passing about two blocks away from Wrigley just when the gates were opening.
Heat Cuts Marathon Short; 1 Dead And 250 Ill
Runners Sent Back To Starting Line Midway Through Course
It's the military state or warstate myth that's got us befuddled. This state doesn't much resemble America the Free anymore. What, will Hillary grow a star on her forehead where her third eye of wisdom should be if she is elected, to go with her new uniform of office?
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007
Made Love, Got War: Norman Solomon on Close Encounters with America's Warfare State
*****
NORMAN SOLOMON: Well, the official storyline is that the US went from humiliation, with the Soviet launch of Sputnik fifty years ago, to triumph, man on the moon in ’69, technological superlatives ever since.
But there’s a shadowy side, a terribly damaging and destructive shadowy side, which many people in the United States and around the world have been subjected to, and that is the hijacking and the channeling of technological expertise and scientific research in billions of dollars for purposes of what Dwight Eisenhower called in ’61 the “military-industrial complex” and, in a less well-known phrase in his farewell address in ’61, a “scientific technological elite.” That elite is sending 2,000-pound bombs into urban areas of Iraq. It is not only paying off outfits like Blackwater to, out of sight and often out of mind, slaughter Iraqi people in our names and with our tax dollars, but also pursuing missions that are very far from the official storyline.
And so, you could say, just as Sputnik was said to have launched a trajectory of US technological expertise, Silicon Valley and all the rest of it, we have the underside of what we could call a political culture of hoax that has counter-pointed all of the rhetoric about democracy and scientific progress with what Martin Luther King called in 1967 a dynamic of “guided missiles and misguided men,” of using our talents of our country, our resources, our scientific brilliance, for purposes of enriching a few and building a warfare state, which is part of us every moment.
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/03/1349247
harpo do you know what the rich do with thier money ? smart ass
little baby harpie might want to catch up on it's freud because it's subconscious is pretty obvious to the rest of us as we observe it's acting out behavior here. smearing feces is the least of it, can't it see it's mother baby standing in the shadows?....
your said it your stupid and my spelling is fine paying taxes help all people to improve thier lives
And, I'm willing to bet they don't go around talking about feces or call people asshats.
And the Sunday question for the US: Who would the Prince of Peace endorse in this contest of Battleaxes in this worldly fight for oil?
More from NS:
And yet, we are tamped down, our numbing process, which is part of the warfare state, gets us to be passive, to accept. And often, you know, Amy, I travel around the country. I talk with people. Many are concerned. They watch this program. They're active. We get in a room. There’s fifty, there’s five, there’s five hundred people. And often, the question comes up: “Well, aren't we just preaching to the choir?” And that is a concern. We have to go outside our own constituencies as progressives. But the reality is that the choir needs to learn to sing better, to challenge more fundamentally the warfare state, because right now it’s our passivity, our acculturated acceptance, that’s causing so much damage.
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/03/1349247
i trought you were retard and idiot harpo your the troll go back to where your cralled out of your rock
your probly thnk your so tough on here hurasing people on here you must be a weekling in real life budy boy
I'm also willing to bet most everyone here would agree that Dusty has a much better grasp on what is happening to Americans under this administration than you do. This isn't a spelling bee. He gets it on a whole different level - one that REALLY matters.
If you are intent on hanging around, try to be civil.
if you dont like what your read in here then leave i agree wiht what people write in here do go away you asshat trool
Harpo, you are just as guilty of what you say above. If you want to disagree on an issue, can't you do it in a civil manner? You seem to be here to disrupt and to pick fights. Of course, people will respond to your attacks. Come on, you have to see the error of your ways.
the words that are nasty comeout your mouth domb shit and why do have to be purfect to be wiht you ugly troll
I think the president has declared a state of emergency. Trouble is, he's been caught lying about threats for political and business gain: lost all credibility, and now his harrassments seem but petty politics:
Friday, October 5th, 2007
American Peace Activists Denied Entry to Canada After Appearing on FBI Database
Two leading U.S. peace activists were denied entry into Canada on Wednesday after their names appeared on an FBI criminal database that the Canadian government is using at its borders. Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel and former diplomat, and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of women’s peace group CODEPINK, were headed to Toronto to appear at an antiwar event. We speak to Ann Wright about her entry denial and its implications on civil liberties.
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/05/1419236
Just stop it.
Big Banks Are Selling Us Out on Climate Change
By Tara Lohan, AlterNet. Posted October 6, 2007.
Whether we avert catastrophe with climate change may actually be decided by Citibank and Bank of America.
We're nearing the end of the window of opportunity we have to avert the catastrophic effects predicted from the earth's changing climate. We're either going to sink or swim. Our best hope at this time is to drastically reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, like carbon dioxide.
Global leaders are putting their heads together to come up with solutions. Across the world, countries and municipalities are passing legislation to limit GHG emissions; people are cutting consumption; new technologies are being developed to further alternative energy sources. And yet, in the United States, the coal industry has us poised to move in the absolute wrong direction. Right now, there are about 150 new coal-fired power plants on the drawing board. The amount of polluting emissions they will release is staggering -- between 600 million and 1.1 billion tons of CO2 emissions every year, for the next 50 years. And this, according to Rainforest Action Network (RAN), will basically negate every other effort currently being considered to fight climate change.
Over the last 20 years since Bill McKibben wrote the first global warming book for a general audience, only a few things have changed: Scientists have realized the problem is worse than they thought, and the crisis is coming on faster than predicted.
"The final question as to whether we can address it in serious fashion is whether the coal that is in the ground stays in the ground," said McKibben. "We already know that we are going to burn all the oil we can get our hands on because we have gotten our hands on most of it and it is intensely valuable. Coal, on the other hand, is the question. If the 150 power plants get built, there is no use talking about compact fluorescent light bulbs or mass transit or any of those other things ... we'll have no hope of averting climate change short of catastrophic proportions."
And what's the quickest way to halt those plants? Follow the money.
Without funding from banks, companies don't have the resources to front the $140 billion necessary to construct all those new dirty power plants. Rainforest Action Network learned that the money trail is not so complicated; it leads to two main banks -- Citi and Bank of America.
alternet.org/environment/64470/
Frank Zappa on censorship and the first amendment on crossfire 1986.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HljzEXJvj8
Harpo, once again you are distorting the facts. I've been on this blog for years. Depending on the political climate, we come and we go. Now that the 08 elections are heating up, more of us have come "home". We've all been able to get along and exchange opinions without insults and dirty words. And, you are deceiving yourself if you think you are here to exchange ideas or opinions. Your sole desire is to disrupt. Be honest with yourself and then maybe the folks on this blog will treat you with some respect.
bbl
Let's try following the $.
Erik Prince and his family give hundreds of thousands of damn dollars to repub and Bush campaigns. The company headed by Prince is awarded a billion dd by the Bush administration's politicised pentagon and state department. The company makes 10% profit ($100m), out of which it is the Prince's pleasure to give big back to the repubs party and bushco. This is how the racket works.
Now the curious part: the money congress is borrowing to pay for this big military adventure to get oil is coming from, ...China.
So is bushco getting political support from a communist dictatorship? And is Blackwater their front-man in this devilish and devious relationship?
(Ahem)...
Yeah Dusty, your spelling is just fine alright. If it makes you feel good than it's A-OK with us here. Your teachers have been telling you that since your were in first grade so it's too late to change things now.
All you can hope for is that whoever arranges for your tombstone knows how to spell (comma) so your name is engraved correctly. Damned hard to erase granite.
Posted by Harpo.......
Nobody has made YOU (troll number 2) the grammar, punctuation, or spelling policeman for this site. (For obvious reasons.)
Harpo, I'm not naive. I've actually met Pam, gregg and a few others that blog here. They are not bogeymen - they are real people with real ideas that want to make a difference. I don't know what initially happened to you on this blog, but maybe it's time to make a fresh start. If you keep on doing what you are doing, you are just wasting time.
Now, I really have to go! My Yankees are behind and I have to light candles and sprinkle holy water around.
...spelling and punctuation skills than you do (redundant) / (comma) as well.
Give it up Harpoon. You aren't the poster boy for grammar, typing, spelling , thinking, or anything else, for that matter.
All you have is a fascination with others' shit and asses.
You are sick and need help. (Oh, you are also a plagiarist to the highest order. Never an original thought, but ALWAYS a new bag of Cheetos).
As a member of the Quds Force pf Iran, are they protected by the Geneva Convention? Or can Bush apply his form of water board interrogation? If they are protected, then can the Red Crescent visit them? Or does Bush have a special Guantanamo rule for that? Will they be tried as a civilian or as a military member? If American military personnel are captured by the Iranians do they have Geneva Conventions or will they be treated like embassy visitors and Guantanamo prisons? Will the Red Cross be allowed to visit? If anyone violates the Geneva Convention can they be tried as war criminals in the International Court in The Hague? Can Blackwater personnel be tried there or where?
Maybe the World Court can use Guantanamo after Bush's term to imprison our war criminals, who broke international laws. But here they would have civil and human right serving prison terms by the court. But I have a feeling they might have a miniature golf course there.
...Who is (s/b are) they?
Keep it up, Cheeto boy. You are just a fount of wisdom when it comes to spelling, punctuation, grammar and correct English usage.
No, lardball, YOU posted an entire piece of mind numbingly incoherent babble under YOUR "Harpo" user ID. I traced it back through that, and waited a few days and you did it again. Then again.
I knew that you were SO "proud" of that nonsense that you had to expose it to a larger audience than your ZERO hit blog. (And, you KNOW that the DNC KA Open Thread is the 4th largest read political blog on the entire net. Look it up.)
So either YOU are that same guy, or YOU are posting "his" crap and taking credit for that tripe.
Either YOU ARE him, or YOU ARE a PLAGIARIST! It's one or the other, and it can't be neither, but it CAN be both.
No, moron. The use of "they" in your example has nothing to do with YOUR use of "is" in your post.
In your example the point is to clarify an unidentified group using "they" as an identifier without FIRST naming "them".
Also, you were not in agreement with your use of plurals. In your stupid example, you are citing the placement of 'they' rather than looking at the use of IS as it refers to the SENIOR YEAR, not the ambiguous "they". Your verb usage didn't correlate to the antecedent of the prepositional phrase.
You are so stupid, your examples even tie you in knots.
Would you rather your example read 'They say that senior year arethe hardest year of high school...'?
That seems to be what you are implying.
Bite me, Sally*. As I said, look it up. We seem to see saw with TPM, but I think Josh is pulling ahead now after exposing that US Atty. scandal.
And, as usual, you can't refute facts, so you just resort to ad hominem attacks and outright lies. Look it up!
Is Vice President Sphincter trying to start a war our longtime NATO partner Turkey? Does Turkey have oil? Did blackwater (Nazi Brownshirts) sell weapons to the Kurdish rebels (PKK)?
It looks like cheney will get his way. The Kurds killed 13 Turkish soldiers in Turkey. I wouldn't blame them for crossing the border and wiping out the Kurds. While they are at it they should wipe out blackwater.
BBC Reports:
Kurdish fighters from the separatist group, PKK, have killed 13 Turkish soldiers in an attack close to the country's border with Iraq.
It is one of the heaviest losses the Turkish military has sustained in clashes with the group. Reports say only one PKK fighter was killed.
The Turkish military shelled the border area in an attempt to prevent the fighters from fleeing to northern Iraq.
Ankara says about 3,000 PKK fighters are based in Kurdish-run north Iraq.
The Turkish government has been reluctant to push for a cross-border military operation but has repeatedly called on the US and the Iraqi authorities to take action against them.
"Those who create, feed and support terrorism should know that no force can stand against the determination of the Republic of Turkey to protect its inseparable integrity," Turkey's President Abdullah Gul said.
Constant clashes
"Thirteen members of our armed forces were killed in an attack ... carried out by terrorists on one of our units serving in the Sirnak region," a General Staff statement said.
The BBC's Sarah Rainsford says there have been almost constant clashes between Turkish forces and the PKK since thousands of troops were deployed in the border region earlier this year.
She says this latest ambush will increase military pressure on the Turkish government to send troops across the border.
Last month Iraq denied Turkey permission to pursue armed separatists onto Iraqi territory.
Instead Iraq and Turkey signed a wide-ranging security agreement, pledging to prevent finance, logistical support and propaganda for the PKK.
The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in south-eastern Turkey since 1984 and more than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
PKK attack kills 13 Turk soldiers
Harpo is full of crap. When we the people prove that bush and cheney planned and executed the 9/11 attack, they will be sent to the Hague to be tried for crimes against humanity and hanged as mass murderers.
Knowledge of the 9/11 attack and failure to act constitutes the same criminal act.
CHAINS=HAGUE=TRIAL=HANG
WE THE PEOPLE DEMAND THE TRUTH AND WE THE PEOPLE DESERVE THE TRUTH ABOUT 9/11!
Well, moron, I Copied and Pasted YOUR sentence (I KNOW you love C&P because you are such an accomplished plagiarist), and subbed the word "are" where you put "is", and the HTML didn't add the space I put in there. It's a computer thing, that did it's own spacing in order to maximize line usage. I have no control over what happens once I hit "post".
You, on the other hand (the one without the baby oil, I hope) still haven't addressed YOUR original mistake. Instead you quibble about a computer programming glitch.
Who cares? Computers don't change verb tenses or sentence structure, YOU do.
Give it up. YOU were complaining about some dude's typing skills mastery of the English Language, and YOU butchered your own condescending post.
Drop dead, get lost, and lose weight. BTW, you were on here SEVERAL months before you adopted that Harpo handle, and you were NEVER nice and open to the free exchange of ideas. You came on here with all your Libertarian Party crapola and started insulting people from day one.
The day the Stock Market ALMOST tied where it was when Clinton was in office I pointed out the error of your thing WITH LINKS and that's when the insults really started to spew from your Ayn Rand influenced besotted little brain.
Grow up, act your age and get lost.
See a psych for your anal fixation, too.
Posted by Orangutan on October 7, 2007 at 09:24 PM
Huh? Whats so good about that? Marines i.q. is sooooo high that he would salute a lightpole.
Why would they be unloaded from a "vane". Are they stuck on a windmill?
Posted by Harpo_thinks_you_are_all_asshats on October 7, 2007 at 10:04 PM
Mr. Harpo, after the zzzzzzzzaaaaaappppppppppp! comes a ssssssiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzllllleeee with a distinct oder of feces in the air.
Posted by Orangutan on October 7, 2007 at 10:15 PM
Aren´t orangutang´s vegetarians?
Sorry to break up the back and forth, but there are bigger issues to discuss than what one obsessive compulisive recluse imagines in the course of a day.
In fact, we had the honor of hearing from a number of World War II interegators today. Credited with eliciting information from the likes of Rudolf Hess, not to mention numerous German scientists, these interegators tell us that most of their information was gathered over a game of chess or through easedropping on prisoners of war. Many were appaulded by the practices currently being used and expressed doubts when asked to comment on the effectiveness of such practices as waterboarding.
Well, Lardo. You're obviously not looking hard enough. As I said, TPM sometimes beat this site, and the reader hits are obviously not as high during the Summer as they are in the middle of a Primary season, but it's still up there in the TOP tier, with more weekly hits than any other Pug site, and most Liberal sites, too.
Is there any reason why Freeperville doesn't report their numbers? (There is, and it's because they are "fudged" a LOT by low timing their refresh function and re-counting open viewers multiple times, as does Drudge. That kind of manipulation is frowned upon by reputable advertising and research firms.)
Posted by Marine on October 7, 2007 at 10:18 PM
WWII veteran Nazi interrogators denounced Bush’s Torture techniques
Another "PHONY SOLDIER" speaks out.
We may want to change that first bit to "get to know your audience". Too often we assume that we know what people want to hear, when we could just as easily get the answers from them.
Oh, I know DPD, I'm just waiting to see what supporters of those techniques have to say about the last generation to win a major conflict.
These hyperactive neocons, or whatever they want to call themselves, have played soldier long enough. My apologies to the few who actually served and might by some miracle read this. But, as I was saying, we have watched the American people led around by emotional tyrades long enough. Now it is time to let those with training and/or experience lead the way.
I know how we could have avoided the enormous expense we now appear tied to, and I know how we can avoid growing that expense while still achieving our goals. It involves a bit of luck, but mostly it involves actual hard work and honesty. And at this point honesty is the most important aspect, because we can neither improve our current strategy nor increase the degree of support we receive from Middle Eastern inhabitants without it.
Next, we have to accept the fact that all of this will not be resolved overnight, just as president Bush has often told us. We mistaken believed that this could be achieved more quickly through the use of overwhelming force at one time, but after five years all Americans have come to learn that this was no more than wishful thinking.
Had it been me calling the shots, I would have accepted Saddam's destruction of Skud missiles as a good faith gesture. Then I would have asked for another, knowing full well that we were nearing our goal without having to support a major military deployment. This was part of a well known and very effective strategy that we call seige.
Marine, Gates knows that the Neo-Con take over of the Pentagon has been a total disaster, so he's cutting off the Bill Kristol Mafia from the pipeline. He's starting to staff the upper levels with people who know what the job is supposed to be, and it's NOT some ideological pipe dream dreamed up by a bunch of bored rich chicken hawks and war profiteers one night over cocktails.
Pace and the 'end of the Rumsfeld era'
All of these clowns will eventually end up on the "Fairly Unbalanced" FOX "News" Channel some time soon.
And, after the Chimp totally trashed the Intelligence Community after screwing up HIS hormone spurt, they are putting a huge Money Wrench into his wet dream of invading Iran.
Intel Community To Release Iran Reports To Slow Bush War Machine
I might also add that we can clearly see how effective it was by looking at how easily our forces toppled Saddam Hussien's. The administration realized that these strides had been made during the previous administration, which is why they went ahead with the invasion, but they had failed to look beyond the toppling of Saddam in their rush to remove him. As you can clearly see, this has been a tragic mistake, not just for us but also for the millions of Iraqis who have had to live through these years of conflict.
It's a monkey wrench without the k, asshole. I'm watching the Bears lose, so big deal and drop dead. A typo is a typo.
For the record though a real "money wrench" is what Gannon/Guckert calls whatever he gives Chimpy whenever Laura is hiding out at the Mayflower Hotel, or has fled to Crapford TX. YOUR tax Dollars pay that male whore to screw Chimpy in the butt, so it is nice and broken in for when the Chimpmeister visits his "business partner" and "Sugar Daddy" Osama bin Laden who is living large at Camp David and feeding the Chimp's "man needs" on a regular basis.
Why do you think Chimpy keeps letting the dude "escape", and Chimpy keeps talking about the need for OIL??
TIED UP! Bears will still lose, though.
jfo, please come pick up your momma. she is stinking drunk on rubbing alcohol and is in the pig pen trying to mount the thousand pound sow...she's your mom and if you have any self respect at all you'll come git her before the hogs eat her up.
Sure... Every time Laura is out of town, Jeff Gannon/Guckert, a known, advertised, gay male prostitute walks into the White House and doesn't leave until a few hours before Laura comes back several days later. That ain't no fantasy. It's a FACT, Jack.
Gannon/Guckert suddenly gets Secret Service clearance to enter the White House Press Room and lob softball questions to his boyfriend, and NOBODY knows who he is, and he also gets credentials under an alias!!
That says a LOT about the security of our most important "Hard Target", (and I'm talking about the WH, not the alcoholic crack-heads ass).
God, these Cheeseheads look like the Cubs fans on Saturday. TD Chicago. I may lose a few bucks on this unless Favre can get it together.
Sally* seems to know AN AWFUL (really, really "awful") LOT about animal "husbandry". Makes me wonder just how lonely it gets in them thar woods.
Favre pass INTERCEPTED in the End Zone by Chicago, 1 second on the clock......Game OVER. Bears, 27, GB, 20. I lose $5.00.
jfo, now your mom and your dear old grannie are chasing the male sheep around the field yelling something about your grandfather and if its good for the goose its good for the gander....would you please come and get your relatives and take them home so we can get back to work!
No, ASSWIPE, I said "political sites". Porn is Number 1, and you probably add most of the "hits" to those sites. Get the shit out of your head (use barbed wire; you can pull it back and forth ear to ear and call it "Mental floss"). Don't LIE about what I said.
good night marine. stay young.
here is a great song by john mellencamp about the jena six...ought to piss the racist trolls right off...
jm talks about a real issue of social values
for some reason i find this very humorous...the pelicans have to twist their own twisted rules on illegal immigrants to take care of mega farmers that need the cheap labor....what happened to the argument that these folks from south of the border were costing us tax dollars and wouldn't be missed....oops looks like uncle karl was right again....capital does assert itself as it needs to...
U.S. lets in more immigrants for farms
By Nicole Gaouette, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 7, 2007
WASHINGTON -- With a nationwide farmworker shortage threatening to leave unharvested fruits and vegetables rotting in fields, the Bush administration has begun quietly rewriting federal regulations to eliminate barriers that restrict how foreign laborers can legally be brought into the country.
The effort, urgently underway at the departments of Homeland Security, State and Labor, is meant to rescue farm owners caught in a vise between a complex process to hire legal guest workers and stepped-up enforcement that has reduced the number of illegal planters, pickers and middle managers crossing the border.
"It is important for the farm sector to have access to labor to stay competitive," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel. "As the southern border has tightened, some producers have a more difficult time finding a workforce, and that is a factor of what is going on today."...
jfo, GET YOUR GODDAMN RELATIVES OUT OF THE SEPTIC TANK! THEY THINK ITS A SWIMMING POOL!
i think senator craig is demonstrating a brilliant sense of humor for such a guy who to date had been such a nasty right wing finger pointer....go craig go...all the way to november 08...
well time for bed. should be interesting to see if costa rica's voters put another pointy stick in the presidummie's eye today...boy talk about shrinking spheres of influence....the bushies have diluted this countries influence in latin america to a degree not seen in many decades...
It was at the time, but as I said, I'm sure Josh traded places with KA in the interim, as it's not an election season YET.
But you are missing the point of that plagiarist posting his tripe on here WHEN HE DID; which was to get an audience that HIS blog DOES NOT HAVE, (i.e., more than ZERO), and which, if you had the brains of an 8 year old you would be able to figure out, due to the CONTEXT AND CONTENT of the post.
And then you FALSELY claimed that I said "...the ENTIRE..." internet because YOU. ARE. A. L-I-A-R, and have nothing for a defense other than lies and ad Hominem attacks.
Give it up, asswipe. As usual, Sally*, YOU LOSE! (ONE 'O', HARPO, make note of that).
gregg, the only sphere of influence Chimpy has nowadays is his crack pipe.
Blackwater 'killed 17', says Iraq
The Iraqi government says a shooting in Baghdad last month involving the US security firm, Blackwater, killed more people than previously thought. Full Story:
Clinton would fund stem cell research
If elected president, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton says she would sign an executive order rescinding President Bush's restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
Full Story:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071004/clinton_stemcell_071004?s_name=&no_ads=
HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!
Even KKKARL Roverer is bailing on the Chimp! He doesn't want Chimpy's stench sticking to him. He feels it could hurt him personally and professionally.
Bush’s Brain seeks transplant.
Screw the Chimp. He SUCKS.
WORST PRESIDENT FOR ETERNITY!!!
Six Years Later, US Expands Afghan Base
By Jason Straziuso
The Associated Press
OOPS!!!
There goes that "solid" 26%.
Republicans Have Ongoing Problem with their Base
Yeah, "Base" seems to be the right word for these hate mongers.
Thanks for reiterating the point, asswipe. what are THE TWO WORDS PRIOR TO WHAT YOU HIGHLIGHTED???
"POLITICAL BLOG".
I WIN.
YOU LOSE.
(Because....)
YOU
ARE
A
L-O-S-E-R!
Oh, BTW, Here's MORE proof of your LIES.
Give it up, LIAR. I win, YOU LOSE.
Go "clean some seeds", or whatever it is you are calling it now.
OOPS, Sorry, that link didn't work right. It was something I sent to a friend about his betting on the Cubs.
HERE'S the PROOF of your constant LIES.
HAHAHAHAHA
I told the truth. YOU edited my comment (as you ALWAYS do) in a LAME attempt to make a point.
HERE IS THE ACTUAL EXCHANGE. Compare that with what YOU posted.
It was at the time thumbass plagiarized "someone else's" blog, but as I said, it may have changed, since this isn't the "season". I didn't make up those numbers, they came fron the people who count those things. FreeperVille isn't even counted nor is Drudge due to their manipulation of the counters, and Freepie-town gets only "estimated" numbers, but none the less ALL Wingnut sites have less traffic than this one, and for that matter MOST Progressive sites blow the Pugs out of the water. Pugs SUCK at the new technology thingy.
Hey, Howza dat newfangled RNC site doin' deese days? Why I betcha dayd be doin' guud cuzza alla smart folks runnin' the place an' such, yup, uh huh. Smart jess lika our Prezudunn.
(It AIN'T, and it SUCKS, and HE ain't, and HE sucks).
As I said, LOOK IT UP!
Also, during YOUR LIE FEST you only highlighted the words "entire net" and didn't back up 2 words to"POLITICAL BLOG".
Mistake, or intentional. HMMMMMM, .
Let's C&P the 2 posts side by side, shall we?
YOU
MY RESPONSE
Notice the subtle difference?
There IS NONE. It is BLATANT! YOU edited MY comment to suit YOUR LIE!
Who writes your gibberish? Donald Rumsfeld??? That isn't even in English. That makes less sense than his "known knowns versus unknown knowns and unknown knowns and known knowns and unknown unknowns and ....." crap fest
Did Wavy Gravy leave you a few hits of that brown window pane he was talking about?
Blasphemy?? Now the troll Sally* is comparing himself to God???
HOLY SHIT!! (Or, in Sally*'s case, it would be "Wholly Shit".)
if there is a god sally he is saving a special place in hell for your racist, sexist, homophobic, mean spirited ilk. bet on it.
meanwhile back in the only veil of tears any of us has witnessed so far we have this fun piece from reuters:
Democrats positioned to widen majority in Senate
Sun Oct 7, 2007 11:10pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats are positioned to bolster their Senate majority in next year's elections, which would give them more clout regardless who succeeds President George W. Bush in the White House.
With Republicans dogged by retirements, scandals and the Iraq war, there's an outside chance Democrats will gain as many as nine seats in the 100-member Senate in the November 2008 elections, which would give them a pivotal 60.
That is the number of votes needed to clear Republican procedural roadblocks, which have been used to thwart the Democrats' efforts to force a change in Bush's policy on the Iraq war, particularly plans to withdraw U.S. troops.
The last time Democrats had an overriding majority in the Senate was in the 1977-1979 congressional session, when they held 61 seats.
"Sixty is not outside the realm of possibility," said Jennifer Duffy, who tracks Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
"But for that to happen, everything would have to break their way," she said. "Right now, it's way too early to say."
With the elections a year away, many Republicans are distancing themselves from Bush, whose approval rating was around 33 percent in recent polls. But they remain largely tied to his unpopular stance on the Iraq war, now in its fifth year.
Many are concerned about their future and Senate Democrats have raised more in campaign contributions than Republicans...
say goodbye to wing nut pro-segregation, anti-women and anti-worker judges, say hello to health care for all
the writer is obviously some sort of evil commie without enough man juice in his veins to feel good about the end of the human race or baby parts flying about the campus but HE IS PROBABLY RIGHT!
Report says war on terror is fuelling al Qaeda
Mon Oct 8, 2007 1:57am EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Six years after the September 11 attacks in the United States, the "war on terror" is failing and instead fuelling an increase in support for extremist Islamist movements, a British think-tank said on Monday.
A report by the Oxford Research Group (ORG) said a "fundamental re-think is required" if the global terrorist network is to be rendered ineffective.
"If the al Qaeda movement is to be countered, then the roots of its support must be understood and systematically undercut," said Paul Rogers, the report's author and professor of global peace studies at Bradford University in northern England.
"Combined with conventional policing and security measures, al Qaeda can be contained and minimized but this will require a change in policy at every level."
He described the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as a "disastrous mistake" which had helped establish a "most valued jihadist combat training zone" for al Qaeda supporters.
The report -- Alternatives to the War on Terror -- recommended the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq coupled with intensive diplomatic engagement in the region, including with Iran and Syria.
In Afghanistan, Rogers also called for an immediate scaling down of military activities, an injection of more civil aid and negotiations with militia groups aimed at bringing them into the political process.
If such measures were adopted it would still take "at least 10 years to make up for the mistakes made since 9/11."
"Failure to make the necessary changes could result in the war on terror lasting decades," the report added.
Rogers also warned of a drift toward conflict with Iran.
"Going to war with Iran", he said, "will make matters far worse, playing directly into the hands of extreme elements and adding greatly to the violence across the region. Whatever the problems with Iran, war should be avoided at all costs."
might want to hold off on investing in that vacation cabin in iraq just yet:
Top Iraqis pull back from key U.S. goal
Reconciliation seen as unattainable amid power struggle
Updated: 1:20 a.m. ET Oct 8, 2007
BAGHDAD - For much of this year, the U.S. military strategy in Iraq has sought to reduce violence so that politicians could bring about national reconciliation, but several top Iraqi leaders say they have lost faith in this broad goal.
Iraqi leaders argue that sectarian animosity is entrenched in the structure of their government. Instead of reconciliation, they now stress alternative and perhaps more attainable goals: streamlining the government bureaucracy, placing experienced technocrats in positions of authority and improving the dismal record of providing basic services.
"I don't think there is something called reconciliation, and there will be no reconciliation as such," said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd. "To me, it is a very inaccurate term. This is a struggle about power."
Humam Hamoudi, a prominent Shiite cleric and parliament member, said any future reconciliation would emerge naturally from an efficient, fair government, not through short-term political engineering among Sunnis and Shiites.
"Reconciliation should be a result and not a goal by itself," he said. "You should create the atmosphere for correct relationships, and not wave slogans that 'I want to reconcile with you.' "
The acrimony among politicians has strained the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki close to the breaking point. Nearly half of the cabinet ministers have left their posts. The Shiite alliance in parliament, which once controlled 130 of the 275 seats, is disintegrating with the defection of two important parties.
Legislation to manage the oil sector, the country's most valuable natural resource, and to bring former Baath Party members back into the government have not made it through the divided parliament. The U.S. military's latest hope for grass-roots reconciliation, the recruitment of Sunni tribesmen into the Iraqi police force, was denounced last week in stark terms by Iraq's leading coalition of Shiite lawmakers...
bushnationbuilding
Morning gregg,
It's going to hit 32 about sunup. I had to winterize my hot water solar heater and my swimming pool solar because they issued a freeze warning yesterday. Sure enough, Weatherbug was right. It's going to freeze. I picked my last Cantalope yesterday. They were just tiny things this year about the size of a softball because of the hot and dry summer. Even my tomatoes only reached a height of 18 inches.
morning john. we have had very little rain but i have watered the garden and so we had a very good harvest ( well harvest might be a bit grandiose given that the garden is all of four hundred square feet). nice tomatoes and basil and garlic and zucchini. today i have to start insulating the ceiling of this addition. using this high density stuff and i am sure i will be itching like a dog with fleas ( speaking of the troll ) by noon.
The acrimony among politicians has strained the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki close to the breaking point.
Posted by gregg on October 8, 2007 at 07:09 AM
Look what bush has done here in America. I have never seen the country so split with people at each others throats. I attribute that to bush's compassionate conservatism. What a loser.
A lot of people are using shredded paper for insulation but that's a bad idea if it gets wet.
Looks like you will beat the weather. I heard that there is a cold front heading across the country. It is here in the Rockies now and heading east. Give it a couple of days. It is 19 in parts of Colorado this morning.
yeah john i may just get this thing buttoned up before the ice forms on my whiskers.
gregg,
Wear a mask. It took them years to figure out that Asbestos was hazardous. About thirty years ago they started saying that they suspected fiberglass as being hazardous but I haven't heard anything new. It's always good to wear a mask.
Morning, Johnedwrd and Gregg. Woke up to a wonderful thunderstorm - we need that rain! It's 57 and muggy with storms forecast all day.
How about those Yankees??
Morning Cyn,
It looks like the Yankees won. Glad to hear you are having some weather. Parts of the midwest were in the hundredds yesterday. It was so hot in Chicago they had to shut down the Marathon.
new thread. loved the game last night cyn. lets hope for anudda!
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