McCain TV performance dings candidacy

We can't figure McCain out anymore. His support for Junior is stunningly stupid and was from the git-go

Union Leader - Robert D. Novak: McCain TV performance dings candidacy - Saturday, Jan. 27, 2007:

WASHINGTON – Democratic strategists who had feared Sen. John McCain as the potentially unbeatable Republican candidate for President in 2008 were surprised and delighted by his dour appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last Sunday.

One Democratic leader referred to McCain’s performance, in suggesting President Bush’s additional 21,000 troops may be inadequate, as “comatose.” A Republican adviser to McCain said it was one of the worst performances ever on “Meet the Press.” The senator’s defender said he could not be expected to be cheerful about a plan to send additional U.S. troops in harm’s way.

A footnote: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is picking up support for President among House Republicans, headed by former Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Iraq National Intelligence Estimate Will Advise Against Sending More Troops

Hey Congress, No NIE, No surge!

You let them get by with that once, as what you were given before the Iraq war was more like a scrubbed White Paper than an NIE.

Don't make the same mistake again!

NPR: Iraq National Intelligence Estimate Will Advise Against Sending More Troops... | The Huffington Post:

Six months ago, Harper's Ken Silverstein reported that 'in spite of pressure from CIA analysts, intelligence czar John Negroponte was blocking a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq.' National Intelligence Estimates present the consensus view of the U.S. intelligence apparatus. Despite pressure from Congress, the administration insisted it could not complete the NIE until January 2007.

Last week, however, an administration intelligence official told senators that the report is still not complete. According to Silverstein, Senate hearing attendees 'believe that senior intelligence officials are stalling because an NIE will be bleak enough to present a significant political liability.'

Notes: Gergen on Bush's Handling of Iran: "This is Nuts!"

That's putting it mildly.

The Blog | Arianna Huffington: Davos Notes: Gergen on Bush's Handling of Iran: "This is Nuts!" | The Huffington Post:

'This is nuts! It's just crazy to me.'

That was David Gergen's assessment of the Bush administration's failure to use diplomacy to confront the looming Iran nuclear crisis (he is clearly far more unplugged in Davos than he is on CNN).

We were wrapping up our early morning panel, taking a look ahead at the key economic and political issues on America's horizon. Our fellow panelists were Nicholas Kristof and Jay Nordlinger. Paul Laudicina moderated.

Gergen started off the session by evaluating Bush's State of the Union on the two criteria Aristotle said are essential to a great speech, logos and pathos (logic and emotion). He thought the problem with the speech was that it was light on pathos. I thought it was light on pathos, too -- but utterly devoid of even a wisp of logos.

Is McCain becoming a bit unhinged?

Could be....

Nevertheless, why is it that anyone who opposes any Republican's goofy ideas is automatically labeled part of the left fringe or far left?

I wish, that just once, someone would ask these people to explain who they are talking about. Who exactly is the far left?

The Blog | Arianna Huffington: Davos Notes: John McCain Bites My Head Off | The Huffington Post:

Toward the end of the conversation, I raised my hand and asked McCain:

'Given that you've said that you are 'scared to death that it's going to be a very hot spring in Afghanistan,' and given that you have also said, repeatedly, that only a substantial increase in troops in Iraq would make a real difference, why not send the 21,000 troops headed to Iraq, in what is clearly an act of desperation, to Afghanistan instead?'

During his response, McCain equated those opposing his position with 'the far left.'

'Do you consider Sam Brownback part of the far left?' I jumped in.

The Senator flared and told me that if I'd only let him finish his answer instead of interrupting, we could have 'a civil discussion.'

He then continued on about why he supports the escalation (see his speech to the AIE if you need a refresher). Along the way, he denied that he had used the phrase 'the far left.'

Wow, I thought, the Straight Talk Express has run so far off the rails McCain is now denying things he'd said in front of close to two-dozen note-taking journalists not half-a-minute before.

Stop The Iran War Before It Starts

If Bush launches an attack on Iran, he's coming down!

NewsTrust - About this Story - Stop The Iran War Before It Starts:

The Nation - By Scott Ritter - Jan 27, 2007 - Full Story

Democrats in Congress have the opportunity to nip this looming disaster in the bud. The fact that most of the Democratic members of Congress who enjoy tenure voted in favor of the resolutions giving the President such sweeping authority is moot. Democrats are all capable of pleading that they were acting under the influence of a Republican-controlled body and unable to adequately ascertain through effective oversight the genuine state of affairs. This is no longer the case. The Democrats in Congress are in firm control of their own destiny, and with it the destiny of America. A war with Iran will pale in comparison with the current conflict in Iraq...

Bush's Nixonian Poll numbers

Jan. 27, 2007 - President George W. Bush concluded his annual State of the Union address this week with the words “the State of our Union is strong … our cause in the world is right … and tonight that cause goes on.” Maybe so, but the state of the Bush administration is at its worst yet, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll. The president’s approval ratings are at their lowest point in the poll’s history—30 percent—and more than half the country (58 percent) say they wish the Bush presidency were simply over, a sentiment that is almost unanimous among Democrats (86 percent), and is shared by a clear majority (59 percent) of independents and even one in five (21 percent) Republicans. Half (49 percent) of all registered voters would rather see a Democrat elected president in 2008, compared to just 28 percent who’d prefer the GOP to remain in the White House.

http://msnbc.com

....and the truth shall set us free.

D.C. Protests! This ain't goin' away!

If the peace movement can live through years of shunning and smearing by the mainstream media and scumbags on the radio and blogosphere; pundits who have no clue what the peace movement of today is about, we can surely endure more time in D.C.. We are talking citizens' occupation of the National Mall.

George"the-decider" Bush cannot seem to hear us when we do our duty, as citizens, and vote. Perhaps he needs to see us in order to hear us. He does have a learning disorder, after all.

WASHINGTON - Protesters energized by fresh congressional skepticism about the Iraq war demanded a withdrawal of U.S. troops in a demonstration Saturday that drew tens of thousands and brought Jane Fonda back to the streets.

A sampling of celebrities, a half-dozen members of Congress and busloads of demonstrators from distant states joined in a spirited rally under a sunny sky, seeing opportunity to press their cause in a country that has turned against the war.

The House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. John Conyers, threatened to use congressional spending power to try to stop the war. “George Bush has a habit of firing military leaders who tell him the Iraq war is failing,” he said, looking out at the masses. “He can’t fire you.” Referring to Congress, the Michigan Democrat added: “He can’t fire us.

Story continues ↓

....and the truth shall set us free.

Beyond Net Neutrality: Internet Freedom

Bush likes to talk about the defining fight of our time.

Well, in my mind, that fight is over Net Neutrality.

The Internet is the Central Nervous System of the Peace Movement of today. Without its democratizing effect, public opinion would not have turned against the war in Iraq so soon.

If, as in past American military misadventures, we had only our own corporate news media to rely on for information and background, we would be ill-informed, indeed.

If the Peace Movement only had protests to express our dissent, no one would have heard it at all, even now. No major protest has been covered by the news media, since before the bombing began, in March 2003.

Even though there have been hundreds of thousands of people in the streets of NYC, L.A, D.C., San Francisco, Seattle and other cities around the country, unless one was there, one might never know it.

The Internet is a huge market place of ideas and creativity in finding solutions to the huge problems facing all of us; climate change and fossil fuel depletion , madmen running nations with nukes, health-care and a big population of boomers reaching retirement age.

Finding ways to transit this dangerous time and, in the process, transform our nation and its institutions to better serve the people, is made possible by the Internet.

It isn't technology, in an of itself, that is bad or good, but how we use it. Some have chosen to employ the Net for evil or less than noble purposes. Others try to employ it for good purposes

Some used fire for evil purposes, while others used it to cook food and heat and light their homes.

And so it has been, throughout history, and so it will always be until the hearts of mankind catch up with the minds of mankind and there is grounded balance, making way for right action.

Fight for our Internet!

TomPaine.com - Beyond Net Neutrality: Internet Freedom:

Ben Scott is policy director for Free Press, the national, nonpartisan media reform group.

A year ago, the future of the free and open Internet looked pretty grim. The telephone companies were firing up the engines of one of the biggest lobbying campaigns in history. All told in 2006, they would spend more than $100 million on advertising, lobbying, campaign contributions, slanted research from coin-operated think tanks and an array of astro-turf groups—in an attempt to rewrite communications law. At the top of the priority list was the destruction of “network neutrality.”

Net neutrality is the basic principle that keeps the companies connecting your house to the global network from discriminating against content flowing over the Internet based on its source or ownership. As a result, the Internet has grown into the greatest engine of democratic participation, free speech and economic innovation since the printing press.

When the dust cleared in the 2006 fight in Congress over Net neutrality, the telephone lobby—and its hundreds of millions of dollars—fell short. They were thwarted by the grassroots SavetheInternet.com Coalition, which brought together more than 800 organizations and collected 1.5 million petitions supporting Net neutrality.

Senator Hagel: If He Declares Independence He Will Change The World

Hagel is definitely one of the good guys.

Don't agree with his votes on domestic policies, but he is a genuine hero when it comes to foreign policy and the criminals in the White House.

Senator Hagel: If He Declares Independence He Will Change The World.:

At a time of crisis for America, carnage and chaos throughout the Middle East, renewed danger of East-West conflict, the possiblity of the nuclear arms race rearing its head again, and our country hungering for unity but divided against itself, Senator Hagel Has a historic opportunity that comes once in a generation.

When he said that the Republican Party he voted for during he heroic service in the Mekong Delta is not the Republican Party that exists today, his words were true, and potentially profound.

The Republican Party today is no longer the Party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosvelt and Dwight Eisenhower. Under George Bush the United States is no longer the leader of the free world. We are feared by our friends as well as our enemies.

When Senator Hagel joined with Democrats and sponsored the Iraq resolution, and was the only Republican to vote with them in the Foreign Relations Committee, it was a major moment.

When he pointed to the Democrats, then the Republicans, and said the President has no plan, and the Senate damn well better know the plan before sending the troops, it was a true and magic moment in the Senate.

What if Congress Unanimously Voted to Nuke Iran?

Let me just say this about that:

Ordering a nuclear strike,anywhere, is a real good way to die!

What if Congress Unanimously Voted to Nuke Iran?:

What is going on in America today is equivalent to the following fictitious news story:

Jan. 31, 2007: By unanimous vote, the two Houses of Congress passed today a joint 'sense of Congress' resolution directing President Bush to 'launch nuclear strikes against any non-nuclear-weapon state that undertakes military programs or operations that threaten US interests or those of allies and friends'.

The passage of the joint resolution followed a series of appropriation bills enacted by Congress to fund the development, building and deployment of nuclear earth penetrators (so-called 'bunker busters') of a wide range of yields, with the ability to destroy targets of adversary non-nuclear nations that are 'able to withstand non-nuclear attack', particularly UGF's ('underground facilities for military purposes').

The text of the resolution emphasizes the importance ascribed by Congress to launch strikes as soon as possible, to 'demonstrate US intent and capability to use nuclear weapons to deter adversary use of WMD'.

Bush rebuke draws fire from both war camps

These days, we think someone should throw a net over D.C.

The whole damn place is a loony-bin.......

Bush rebuke draws fire from both war camps - Politics - MSNBC.com:

A non-binding resolution declaring President Bush’s troop increase plan against “the national interest” is stirring debate among pro- and anti-war voters, with neither side sure of its impact.

A day after Bush stood before Congress and asked for the benefit of the doubt, the Democratic-led Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent its rebuke to the Senate floor on a 12-9 vote, with just one Republican senator in support – Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.

Why Bush is no Lyndon Johnson

One difference is, Johnson knew when to go home.

(LBJ wasn't a total murderous idiot, either, but that isn't what our point here.)

Bush doesn't seem to know that the time to go home is yesterday. He should resign, but he won't.

Maybe, it is just as well.

Could be that a constitutional crisis is just what we need in order to deal with the on-going national crisis, called the Bush administration, and their enablers in the GOP and in the corporate news media.

Why Bush is no Lyndon Johnson - Tom Curry - MSNBC.com:

WASHINGTON - The parallel seems irresistible: two presidents, two Texans, each caught in an unpopular war, hobbled in their last two years in the White House, with prospects getting dimmer for persuading Congress to enact their domestic agenda.

When President Lyndon Johnson, mired in the Vietnam War, went before Congress on Jan. 10, 1967, he stood at the same point in his presidency that George Bush stood on Tuesday night: two years to go before the end.

Last week presidential historian Robert Dallek drew the LBJ-Bush parallel, writing that “the two presidents' wartime predicaments represent a strange convergence of two men with vastly different backgrounds and political philosophies.

Memory issues abound in Libby CIA leak trial

Are we to conclude that there is an Alzheimer's epidemic in D.C.?

Memory issues abound in Libby CIA leak trial - Politics - MSNBC.com:

WASHINGTON - The CIA leak trial has, so far, been memorable for forgetfulness.

One by one, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's first three witnesses said they discussed with former White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby the fact that a prominent Bush administration critic was married to a CIA operative.

And one by one, each witness conceded a memory problem. One could not actually remember the conversation. Another recalled it differently than when he first spoke to investigators. A third said his memory improved as time went on.

Demanding Truth from Power

How much more of this can we bear?

Can Fitz rescue us from these deranged war-mongers?

Chant it: Fitzmas, Fitzmas, Fitzmas.......

Hey, Congress are you paying attention? You had damned well better be, unless you want to be conspirators after the fact, if not out-right conspirators.

Don't make us have to remind you for whom you are working. If we have to, it won't be pretty.

Demanding Truth from Power:

By David Swanson, TomPaine.com

David Swanson is co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org, Washington director of Democrats.com and a board member of Progressive Democrats of America.

It was disturbing to see so many members of Congress in both parties clamoring to get Bush's autograph on their copies of his State of the Union-not because it was such a dishonest speech that did such a disservice to this country, and not because they should have been handing him subpoenas instead. Rather, my concern arises from the habit Bush has developed following the signing of any document. Typically he goes home, talks to his lawyers, and issues a 'signing statement' the next day radically altering what he has just signed. Bad as that speech was, it could get a lot worse.

Of course the state of our union is what it is regardless, and Bush had almost nothing to say about it. He claimed our economy was thriving, a claim fairly well debunked by Virginia Sen. Jim Webb's Democratic response. But, for the most part, when the president got at all specific in his speech, he proposed new initiatives and said little or nothing about the past six miserable years. In the seventh year of his presidency, he proposed balancing the budget in five years and reducing gasoline usage in 10 years.

The Plame Plot thickens; sort of like Molasses in Winter

Merry Fitzmas to us all, and to Bush, Cheney and the NeoCons, a very bad night!

Consortiumnews.com:

In the opening statements at the trial of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, new evidence emerged pointing toward a criminal conspiracy at the highest levels of George W. Bush’s White

Webb to Deliver an Aggressive Rebuttal to Bush Iraq Policy - washingtonpost.com

We tuned Junior out several minutes ago, when the same old lies became to tiresome to bear.

We are now waiting for Senator Webb and hoping in him.

Webb to Deliver an Aggressive Rebuttal to Bush Iraq Policy - washingtonpost.com:

Virginia Sen. James Webb (D) tonight will deliver a blistering eight-minute response to the President's State of the Union address. Aides promised it will be an aggressive challenge to Bush's Iraq policies from the newly empowered Democratic majority in Congress.

Webb will speak live from an historic Capitol Hill meeting room and is likely to display the same pugnacious scowl and blunt manner that won over Virginia voters in November and later generated headlines in a face-to-face exchange with Bush at the White House.

BREAKING: Libby Destroyed Evidence Prior To Testifying, Cheney ‘Deeply Involved’#comment-1511145

Fitzmas has begun!

Think Progress » BREAKING: Libby Destroyed Evidence Prior To Testifying, Cheney ‘Deeply Involved’#comment-1511145:

Under oath, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff Scooter Libby told a grand jury that he first learned that Joe Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent from conversations with the media. In fact, he first learned that information from Vice President Cheney himself.

Libby is now on trial for perjury. His defense is that he simply forgot who told him that Plame worked for the CIA. But in court today, prosecutors outlined a powerful case establishing that Libby had reason to remember who told him and motive to cover it up. MSNBC’s David Schuster said today’s revelations from prosecutors are “new and will astound a number of people, even those who have been following this case.” Among the new claims: (Click over^)

Liz Cheney has inherited Dad's insanity

Well, Josh, she doesn't seem to be the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. She would probably be working construction, if it were not or her family's super-fortune.

If we have our way, some of that forune will be confiscated and returned to the treasury!

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall January 23, 2007 02:38 AM:

Cheney's Daughter: More Iraq war is the only answer.

Actually, give it a read. Is it just me or does this column read like it was written by someone in junior high?

Anytime there is an only one answer, it is a stupid question.

War Frenzy

These people, the Bushites, are as insane as the people they want to obliterate

STOP THE MADNESS!!!!!

The Washington Monthly:

The LA Times says that George Bush is expected to claim during tonight's State of the Union address that Iran is deeply involved in Iraq's civil war:

For all the aggressive rhetoric, however, the Bush administration has provided scant evidence to support these claims. Nor have reporters traveling with U.S. troops seen extensive signs of Iranian involvement. During a recent sweep through a stronghold of Sunni insurgents here, a single Iranian machine gun turned up among dozens of arms caches U.S. troops uncovered. British officials have similarly accused Iran of meddling in Iraqi affairs, but say they have not found Iranian-made weapons in areas they patrol.

The lack of publicly disclosed evidence has led to questions about whether the administration is overstating its case.

Golly. Overstating its case? The Bush administration?"

War Frenzy

These people, the Bushites, are as insane as the people they want to obliterate

STOP THE MADNESS!!!!!

The Washington Monthly:

The LA Times says that George Bush is expected to claim during tonight's State of the Union address that Iran is deeply involved in Iraq's civil war:

For all the aggressive rhetoric, however, the Bush administration has provided scant evidence to support these claims. Nor have reporters traveling with U.S. troops seen extensive signs of Iranian involvement. During a recent sweep through a stronghold of Sunni insurgents here, a single Iranian machine gun turned up among dozens of arms caches U.S. troops uncovered. British officials have similarly accused Iran of meddling in Iraqi affairs, but say they have not found Iranian-made weapons in areas they patrol.

The lack of publicly disclosed evidence has led to questions about whether the administration is overstating its case.

Golly. Overstating its case? The Bush administration?"