Blair 'failed to influence Bush'

What a load of crap!

BBC NEWS UK UK Politics Blair 'failed to influence Bush':

The 'disaster' of Iraq and Tony Blair's failure to influence US policy will overshadow his time as prime minister, a leading UK think tank has said.

The invasion and the post-war 'debacle' have damaged the UK's global influence, said the Chatham House report.

Outgoing director Victor Bulmer-Thomas said Mr Blair's successor would have to build better relations with Europe.

But Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told the BBC the 'whole thesis of this note is just plain wrong'.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'Nobody said that Tony Blair has so much influence that single-handedly he can solve all the problems of the world.'
But, Mrs Beckett added: 'The notion that we do not have any influence out there [in the Middle East], or in the European Union, or in the United States is just not true.'

The $2 Trillion Dollar War

Oh man, you gotta read this, just to add it to the human suffering and damage done to Iraq and America.

Rolling Stone : National Affairs: The $2 Trillion Dollar War:

A leading economist says the true cost of Iraq is far higher than President Bush claims -- and America will pay the price for decades to come.

Iran goes petro-euro

Just as we predicted a year ago. It was easily predictable by anyone with more than three neurons firing.

Is this the beginning of the end of the U.S.?

Possibly.

Al Jazeera English - Business: "The Iranian central bank is to convert the state's foreign dollar assets into euros and use the euro for foreign transactions.

'The government has ordered the central bank to replace the dollar with the euro to limit the problems of the executive organs in commercial transactions,' Gholam Hossein Elham, a government spokesman, said on Monday.

'We will also employ this change for Iranian assets [in dollars] held abroad.'

Elham said that Iran's budget would in future be calculated in euros.

'Until now the budget has been calculated according to revenues in dollars but this calculation will now change,' he said.

White House, Joint Chiefs At Odds on Adding Troops

OMG!

The Pentagon Brass v. the Deferred and AWOL Monkies!

Talk about a rising constituional crsis.

I, for one, hope that General Clark is paying attention.

White House, Joint Chiefs At Odds on Adding Troops - washingtonpost.com:

The Bush administration is split over the idea of a surge in troops to Iraq, with White House officials aggressively promoting the concept over the unanimous disagreement of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to U.S. officials familiar with the intense debate.

Sending 15,000 to 30,000 more troops for a mission of possibly six to eight months is one of the central proposals on the table of the White House policy review to reverse the steady deterioration in Iraq. The option is being discussed as an element in a range of bigger packages, the officials said.

The terrorist you've never heard of

Un-effing-believable!

This is our government, Folks!

They should all be hung!

The terrorist you've never heard of:

Unlike alleged al-Qaida terrorist Jose Padilla, right-wing 'dirty bomber' Demetrius Crocker was investigated and prosecuted the old-fashioned constitutional way.
By Alex Koppelman

Dec. 18, 2006 'Salon' --- - In a Miami courtroom on Monday morning, defense lawyers for Jose Padilla, the American citizen accused of conspiring with al-Qaida, will argue what could be a landmark motion. Padilla's defense attorneys are asking the presiding judge to dismiss the case on the grounds of 'outrageous government conduct.' The abuse Padilla has endured while in custody, they contend, has so scarred him that he can no longer even discuss the case against him. They believe he has been rendered incompetent to stand trial.

The logic of the federal government's response to the defense motion was stunningly cold. The U.S. Attorney's office agrees that Padilla needs his competency evaluated. We didn't torture him, argue the representatives of the U.S. government, but if we did, and it made him crazy -- well, then, no claims he makes about said torture can be trusted. He is, after all, mentally incompetent.

Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University who specializes in constitutional criminal procedure, calls this argument 'bizarre.'

'It would create a rather perverse incentive,' marvels Turley. 'As long as the government can force someone into mental incompetency they cannot face a motion for incompetency in court.'

'It would seem,' concludes Turley, with great understatement, 'to invite abuse.'

US and Latin America: Overview for 2006

Meanwhile, South of the Border....

US and Latin America: Overview for 2006: "12/18/06 'Information Clearing House' -- --

Introduction: Escalation of Warfare

To understand US-Latin American relations this year and its likely trajectory in 2007 it is obligatory to consider three dimensions: 1) the global context of US-LA relations; 2) internal dynamics of the US and 3) the real practical political-economic consequences of the 2006 elections in Latin America.

US imperial policy continues to pursue military victories in Iraq and Afghanistan, to give unconditional support to Israel’s war against the elected Palestinian Government and to threaten a direct or Israeli attack on Iran. In other words, the prolonged, costly and inconclusive wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine during 2006 will continue in 2007. Further military escalation, includes increased US troops and spending for wars in the Middle East; an extra $800 million USD in addition to the annual $3 billion USD for Israeli war plans against Lebanon, Palestine and especially Iran. Those commentators who interpreted US policy via public opinion polls, electoral processes (the victory of the Democrats), advisory reports (Baker’s Iraq Study Group) and casualty rates in Iraq, and predicted a ‘gradual’ withdrawal, failed to understand the logic of the White House’s political strategy. For the Bush regime, the military failures are a result of the application of insufficient power: what is necessary, they argue, is greater numbers of soldiers and bigger military budgets (BBC 12/16/06).

Designer monsters

Beware misinterpretations, intentional or otherwise!

Still, Mr. Ahmadinejad should be a little more careful in his speech. This is no time for bluster and controversial speeches.

I will, however, say this: The establishment of a Jewish state, or any other state for that matter, on land which did not belong to them, was a tremendous mistake of the Allied Powers and one for which the world has been paying a price, ever since.

It was a stupid mistake, to believe that we could, essentially, re-locate Europeans, no longer people of the middle-east, into Palestine.

There were Jews living in Palestine, along side Christians and Muslims, peacefully, for the most part, from what I understand, before the western powers joined forces with the Zionists.

The establishment of an Israeli state was a mistake. The only question is how do we deal with it now?

Designer monsters: "12/18/06 'Information Clearing House' --- --

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a man seemingly custom-made for the White House in its endless quest for enemies with whom to scare Congress, the American people, and the world, in order to justify the unseemly behavior of the empire. The Iranian president has declared that he wants to 'wipe Israel off the map'. He's said that 'the Holocaust is a myth'. He recently held a conference in Iran for 'Holocaust deniers'. And his government passed a new law requiring Jews to wear a yellow insignia, à la the Nazis. On top of all that, he's aiming to build nuclear bombs, one of which would surely be aimed at Israel. What right-thinking person would not be scared by such a man?

However, like with all such designer monsters made bigger than life during the Cold War and since by Washington, the truth about Ahmadinejad is a bit more complicated. According to people who know Farsi, the Iranian leader has never said anything about 'wiping Israel off the map'. In his October 29, 2005 speech, when he reportedly first made the remark, the word 'map' does not even appear.

According to the translation of Juan Cole, American professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History, Ahmadinejad said that 'the regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time.' His remark, said Cole, 'does not imply military action or killing anyone at all,' which presumably is what would make the remark threatening.[1] Readers are advised that the next time they come across such an Ahmadinejad citation to note whether a complete sentence is being quoted, and not just 'wipe Israel off the map'.

Poll: Approval for Iraq handling drops to new low

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why anyone still approves of Bush's performance in office. He is, by far, the worst president in my lifetime, and probably in American history.

Maybe they are still buying the "war preznit" crappola, and feel that they must offer support to a president, so burdened by war.

Problem is, it is a war of his on choosing. No one really wanted this war, outside of the NeoCon Cabal who designed it, until they were terrorized into backing it, and not by Osama, but by Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Rummy....oh yes, and Powell.

Poll: Approval for Iraq handling drops to new low - CNN.com:

Support for President Bush's management of the Iraq war has dropped to an all-time low even as his overall approval remains tepid but steady, according to a CNN poll released Monday.

The survey, conducted Friday through Sunday by Opinion Research Corp., found support for Bush's handling of the Iraq conflict has decreased to 28 percent from 34 percent in a poll taken October 13-15.

And a record 70 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Bush's war management, up from 64 percent in the October poll.

Meanwhile, Bush's overall job approval was 36 percent -- down only 1 percentage point from the previous CNN poll to pose that question December 5-7.

Sixty-two percent said they disapproved of his performance in office, up from 57 percent in the early December poll.

The poll released Monday, which surveyed 1,019 adults, had a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

John McCain’s War On Blogs

John McCain is an authoritarian who hates anything he cannot control. That certainly applies to the blogosphere.

However, if McCain wants a war, a war he shall have!

Think what happened to John Kerry was bad? Just wait.

Think Progress » John McCain’s War On Blogs:

John McCain has made clear that he doesn’t like the blogosphere.

Now he has introduced legislation that would treat blogs like Internet service providers and hold them responsible for all activity in the comments sections and user profiles. Some highlights of the legislation:John McCain has made clear that he doesn’t like the blogosphere.

Now he has introduced legislation that would treat blogs like Internet service providers and hold them responsible for all activity in the comments sections and user profiles. Some highlights of the legislation: (Read On: link above)

America wakes to dying dreams, dead soldiers

This is a tragic, tragic mess, and the man, who, at least in large part, is responsible for it, still sits in the White House.

He is as determined as ever that he was and is right and that the rest of us have been and are wrong. He will not admit any mistakes. He will not really reach out for help from people who know far more than he does about, well, everything.

He is so obstinate and absurd that, if given options, all bad, he is bound to choose the worst one; namely sending more troops, (30,000 is the largest number I've heard) into that hellish quagmire called Iraq.

He would rather see thousands more of our kids blown to pieces in a civil war that is none of our business, but was, nevertheless, predicted by many, many people to whom Bush and Cheney would not listen, before they launched the biggest war crime since Hitler tried taking over Europe and did so against the will of the U.N. and millions of people around the world, including millions of Americans.

His and his administration's lies did not make for a liberating force going into Iraq but, rather, for a force seeking vengeance for crimes the Iraqis knew nothing about, while the man our government says is responsible for these crimes, the crimes of 9/11, is still free.

It was just as predictable what this man, this failed CEO, would do as CEO of America Inc. ....and he has done it.

Power, like money, unearned and undeserved is often squandered and misused.

My sincere hope is that the younger generations of Americans, whose lives will not be the same as our were, will someday forgive us for allowing an unelected man to sit in the White House, but more importantly that they never forget the lessons of election 2000.

Roberts: America wakes to dying dreams, dead soldiers:

Yes, he fired Donald Rumsfeld. And yes, he will announce next year 'a new way forward.' But listen carefully. It's clear the president is not really interested in a 'new way' at all. He still firmly believes that his old way is right, that the war was justified, that 'victory' is the only way to keep Stokesdale safe.

His own words reflect no doubt or regret: 'Iraq is a central component of defeating the extremists who want to establish a safe haven in the Middle East, extremists who would use their safe haven from which to attack the United States. This is really the calling of our time, that is, to defeat the extremists and radicals.'

But the president has not only lost the 'battle for hearts and minds' across the Arab world, he's lost it across the United States. The people of Bapchule and Oxford no longer believe his words or trust his judgment. Virtually everything he ever said to them about the war — from 'Mission Accomplished' to 'absolutely, we're winning' — has been wrong.

Once, Americans might have shared his vision of a free, self-governing Iraq, but not any more. He has squandered their trust and betrayed their patriotism. The parents of Thibodaux and Cheektowaga no longer want to sacrifice their children to a lost cause.

Results in Iranian Vote Seen as Setback for Ahmadinejad

Seems the people of the world are getting sick and tired of cowboys, no matter their nationality.

Results in Iranian Vote Seen as Setback for Ahmadinejad - washingtonpost.com:

TEHRAN, Dec 17 -- Allies of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad failed to dominate elections for a powerful Iranian clerical body and local councils, according to early results Sunday, in what analysts said was a setback to the hard-line leader's standing.

Friday's elections for the clerical Assembly of Experts and for local councils, the first nationwide vote since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005, will not directly impact policy.

The President In the Room

How much of an issue will Bill be when Hill runs? Oh, Puleeze.

He is all the media will focus on, 24/7, for the entire election campaign. Silly season will be far sillier than usual.

What's worse, he can raise money by the truckloads, make her the Dem candidate and the electorate will be, once again, polarized in the general election.

Or, on the other hand, he might just remind the people, who are fed up with hypocritical, faux values of the current manifestation of the GOP, that what was done to him was not a national nightmare. It was not a constitutional crisis, until some in the GOP made it one.

By 2008, people will remember what a real national nightmare is, because we have been going through one for years and the constitutional crisis is soon coming.

The President In the Room - washingtonpost.com:

The spotlight was not Bill Clinton's. It belonged, instead, to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as she celebrated her reelection victory.

So Bill stood poker-faced. He clasped his hands. He held his head high. He clapped when appropriate. He smiled ever so faintly. And he did not move. When Hillary offered thanks to him and turned around to acknowledge him, he did not step forward, did not step to her side. He stayed put, several feet away, as if taking pains to soak up not one ray of the spotlight he so dearly loves but that, now more than ever, must be hers and hers alone.

It was political Kabuki -- Bill Clinton, held in check -- on a night that some observers saw as the start of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Bill is poised to mightily help or deeply hurt his wife's White House prospects. Either way, his impact will be profound as he undertakes the unprecedented role of ex-president turned male campaign spouse to the first woman ever to have a serious shot at the presidency.

Billage Idiot Still Refusing to Obey Supremes

He intends to do as he damn well pleases no matter what.

Well, he won't like the what we have in mind and neither will Vice.

Where are the Germans when we need them? Will you guys please come and get Rummy now?

village voice > news > Nat Hentoff by Nat Hentoff:

The Supreme Court ordered him to treat detainees as 'civilized peoples' do. He refuses.

by Nat Hentoff"

Colin Powell takes on St. McCain’s “troop surge”–”The army is broken.”

Yeah, where, exactly are thr troops coming fom. I guess they could take all the inmates out of mental hospitals and send them, except Reagan closed most state institutions.

Ah, yes, the prisons. We will just send all our prisoners over there. It's win/win. We won't have to pay the prisoner $47,000/year, as we now have to pay, on average, to keep people locked up.

This started out to be a funny thought. But, with Bush and Cheney in the White House....well, this really could happen. What's worse, is that at least 30 of our slack-jawed, dipwad copuntrymen and women would wave the flag and belt out a few Hoowahs or other animal mating sounds.

Crooks and Liars » Colin Powell takes on St. McCain’s “troop surge”–”The army is broken.”: (see the video)

Colin Powell has a lot of problems with the McCain/Lieberman plan. Powell explains that the 'last surge' we had was a complete failure, so he's not persuaded a 'surge' is going to work without some kind of mission. I beg to differ. No matter what their mission is—it won't make a bit of difference.

Where are we going to get the troops that McCain/Lieberman want anyway

Christianists get sicker by the day

This is just about the sickest thing I have ever heard.

The last sickest thing I heard was about the Fundy Hell Houses, where they terrify little kids on Halloween, with various visions of hell.

My tax dollars will never go to support anything these sick-hateful people do, because, not matter what it; how noble a charity, they are finding away to indoctrinate young minds and sick ones into believing their twisted version of Christianity.

I have a feeling that the over-whelming ass-kicking the Goopers got in November is, at least, in part a vote against the Religiously insane being anywehere near the Halls of power.

Les Enragés.org:

The most insidious of war toys that will be given this year, however, is produced by Christians, for Christians. 'Left Behind: Eternal Forces' is a video game produced by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. The game is described on http://amazon.com as 'the ultimate fight of Good against Evil, commanding Tribulation Forces or the Global Community Peacekeepers, and uncover the truth about the worldwide disappearances! Wage a war of apocalyptic proportions and decide the fate of the world!'

Why is it that the only way Christians like LaHaye and his followers can envision saving the world is with bombs?

Farewell, Dense Prince

Don't know how MoDo stands to watch this crap.

I couldn't grab the remote fast enough!

Welcome to Pottersville: Farewell, Dense Prince:

James Baker ran after W. with a butterfly net for a while, but it is now clear that the inmates are still running the asylum.

The Defiant Ones came striding from the Pentagon yesterday, the troika of wayward warriors marching abreast in their dark suits and power ties. W., Rummy and Dick Cheney were so full of quick-draw confidence that they might have been sauntering down the main drag of Deadwood.

Far from being run out of town, the defense czar who rivals Robert McNamara for deadly incompetence has been on a victory lap in Baghdad, Mosul and Washington. Yesterday’s tribute had full military honors, a color guard, a 19-gun salute, an Old Guard performance with marching musicians — including piccolo players — in Revolutionary War costumes, John Philip Sousa music and the chuckleheaded neocons and ex-Rummy deputies who helped screw up the occupation, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, cheering in the audience.

Secrecy, the enemy of democracy

What's really shocking, is that the administration had begun it's secrecy campaign long before 9/11.

There were hidden agendas every where.

Secrecy, the enemy of democracy Chicago Tribune:

Excessive government secrecy is the enemy of democracy. Secrecy cripples public debate. Citizens cannot understand, monitor, and evaluate public policies if they are kept in the dark about the actions of their elected representatives. Secrecy is the ultimate form of censorship because the people do not even know they are being censored.

Excessive secrecy is also the enemy of competence. We make better decisions when we consider more rather than fewer perspectives. We make better decisions when we openly debate the alternatives. We make better decisions when we know we have to justify our judgments and know we will be held accountable for our mistakes. Secrecy undermines all these values.

Excessive secrecy has been a consistent theme of the Bush administration. It refused to disclose the names of those it detained after Sept. 11. It has adopted a crabbed interpretation of the Freedom of Information Act, rendering millions of pages of government documents unavailable to the American people. It closed deportation proceedings from public scrutiny. It has redacted vast quantities of 'sensitive' information from thousands of government Web sites. It secretly authorized the National Security Agency to engage in electronic surveillance of American citizens. It secretly established prisons in Eastern Europe and secretly authorized rendition and torture. It secretly authorized the indefinite detention of American citizens. It has concealed the cost of its policies in 'special appropriations' bills, threatened public employees and newspapers with criminal prosecution for revealing its secrets, and deliberately masked its motives, its policies and its failures from We the People.

Jonah Goldberg comes out as fascist

Another example of becoming what one despises.

Goldberg has got to be just about the dumbest man on earth.

He should have to live under someone like Pinochet.

He makes me sick!

It's journalistic quackery like this that is sending newspapers into bankruptcy, much faster than the NET ever could.

Iraq needs a Pinochet - Los Angeles Times:

I THINK ALL intelligent, patriotic and informed people can agree: It would be great if the U.S. could find an Iraqi Augusto Pinochet. In fact, an Iraqi Pinochet would be even better than an Iraqi Castro.

Both propositions strike me as so self-evident as to require no explanation. But as I have discovered in recent days, many otherwise rational people can't think straight when the names Fidel Castro and Augusto Pinochet come up.

Jimmy Carter's Mideast book polarizes opinion

We're with Jimmy on this one. Israel is rapidy losing it, from our perspective.

Someone needs to tell Israel that it is not America's 51st state.

Jimmy Carter's Mideast book polarizes opinion - Yahoo! News:

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A new book by Jimmy Carter in which he compares Israel's treatment of Palestinians to South Africa's Apartheid system has sparked a bitter debate over the former U.S. president's reputation as a peacemaker.

Jewish groups have expressed outrage at the book 'Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,' arguing its comparison of Israel to the racist South African regime could undermine the perception of Israel's legitimacy.

Carter, 82, has been dogged by protests during a promotional tour and Ken Stein, a long-time advisor on Middle East issues who was also the first executive director at the Carter Center in Atlanta, resigned over the book's content.

In an interview with Reuters, Stein cited a passage from the book that said it was imperative for Arabs and Palestinians to 'make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for peace are accepted by Israel.'

Edwards set to launch '08 bid; Bayh out

Smart move Evan. You are even more boring than poor John Kerry, but at least he does have a brain.

Good luck, John!

Edwards set to launch '08 bid; Bayh out - Yahoo! News:

WASHINGTON - Sen. Evan Bayh (news, bio, voting record) on Saturday ended his White House bid while 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards finalized plans to get in, fast-paced jockeying in a Democratic race under the shadow of two unannounced candidates.

Bayh decided he could not compete with Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, whose possible candidacies have dominated the positioning almost two years before the actual election.

Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, has decided he can and is planning to announce his campaign in New Orleans between Christmas and New Year's, two Democrats said.

Edwards' novel choice of sites shows how he wants to distinguish his candidacy: emphasizing policies he believes can unite a country divided by economic inequality, a situation no more evident than in the city's Lower Ninth Ward, still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.