What are we waiting for?

Kucinich nails it.



Rp

Only 9 More Months of This...

Wow these people are completely oblivious to the facts. It's no longer simply reality denial so much as it is reality refusal. Denial would more likely imply an innocence to their inability to grasp facts. Refusal better explains their ability to see facts that counter their claims and outright refusal to care about them.

How else might one explain these recent gaffes by the Worst Presidential Administration Ever?

From ABC News:

The failure of U.S. intelligence in assessing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was like "a yearbook photo on your worst hair day ever," according to one of the country's top spy bosses, Thomas Fingar, deputy director of National Intelligence.

Fingar made the comment in defending the overall quality of U.S. intelligence during an appearance at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York, five years to the week after the 2003 start of the Iraq war.

At another point, Fingar called the U.S. assessment of whether Iraq had nuclear weapons "the single worst product" he had seen in his 38 years serving in various U.S. intelligence agencies.

Bad Hair Day? Product? What fucking reality are these people living in? I wonder how many times this asshole would be punched in the face if he said the "bad hair day" line in a speech to families of dead soldiers.

But of course nobody can top the Dick in reality refusal...

From Reuters:

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said on Wednesday that the economy is going through a "rough patch," a day after the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates to try to protect the economy from financial turmoil.

"We're currently going through a rough patch here, there's no question about it," Cheney said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"We've got problems in the housing industry, mortgage backed securities and so forth, that have created problems we're having to deal with," he said.

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday slashed interest rates by 75 basis points to 2.25 percent as policymakers scramble to bolster the economy amid a housing downturn.

-snip-

Informed that two-thirds of Americans now think the war was not worth fighting, Cheney said: "So?"

He added: "I think we cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations of the public opinion polls. There has in fact been fundamental change and transformation and improvement for the better. That's a huge accomplishment."

A rough patch? Tell that to the millions of people who are going to lose their homes and the billionaires you have to bail out because of your failure to police economic policies and make sure the SEC and other oversight agencies were doing their jobs.

Oh and in response to your, "So?" comment: FUCK YOU.

You, Dick, have been wrong on everything. Wrong on greeting us as liberators, wrong on flowers and candy, wrong on the insurgency being in its "last throes", wrong about WMD intelligence to start and now you and Bush have been critically wrong on Iran. You're ALWAYS wrong.

The war is a failure, people know it and it's no longer just an "opinion poll" to Americans. Those two-thirds of Americans are, unlike you, reality based.

Thankfully there's only Nine Months left of these assholes being able to fuck it up for the rest of us. Hmmm... Nine Months, that's the span of a human pregnancy.

Think we could abort Bush and Cheney? Hell I don't mind waiting a little for the late-term effect either. Just get them out!

-Rp

The War Time President

Bush has often declared himself a "Wartime President". He seemed to do it with glee in a private interview with Tim Russert for Meet the Press a few years back. As ironic as it is for someone who went AWOL from their National Guard duty to now be Commander in Chief and declaring wars, he seems eager to not only continue his current wars but start new ones before he leaves.

General Petraeus is getting ready to give Congress that September report on Iraq as we have reported here several times. The media is gearing up for it by discussing how it might involve troop withdrawals from Iraq. It will be, as expected, positive media for Bush who will look like he's pulling some troops out and not being the complete stubborn prick he has been otherwise. The problem with this is the media again has no idea what they are talking about as troop rotations would require that some troops be redeployed or withdrawn anyway.

As I have said before, anything Petraeus says should be immediately dismissed. Republicans and Neo-Cons (like the World's Biggest Idiot, William Kristol on this The Daily Show appearance this week) try to play him off as some independent, non-partisan voice. As we know from my previous postings that is simply not true.

Not to mention everyone is waiting on his report to Congress as if whatever he says is what we need to act on. This would be a foolish decision for any Democrat in Congress to make especially now knowing that the White House is actually writing his report.

Yes, they've now admitted what I have been saying all along!

From the LA Times:

Despite Bush's repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.

And though Petraeus and Crocker will present their recommendations on Capitol Hill, legislation passed by Congress leaves it to the president to decide how to interpret the report's data.

Well that pretty much sums up how truthful that report will be. Petraeus himself earlier this year slipped up and said the surge didn't stem the violence in Baghdad. Must have been a fleeting bout of conscience I guess.

As if that were not enough for Mr. Wartime President, his Vice-President Dick Cheney is urging for strikes on Iran. These people are unbelievable.

What I'd like to note here is that their flawed (as usual) premise is that the upswing in violence during the surge is somehow all Iran's fault and that all the Shiites that are fighting US forces in the surge are connected to Iran in some way.

Strange how they were surpressing the actual numbers of casualties by excluding deaths by bombing originally in this surge but are now using those numbers to justify a war with Iran.

The worst part is the lack of logic that goes into this explanation. Our surge, by it's very nature, is meant to induce more violence. We're going in and forcing more conflict with al-Sadr's Shiite sect and thus the violence between US Forces and Shiites has risen. It likely has little to do with Iranian influence as much as it does with Iraqi Shiites just wanting to force us out of their homeland.

From the Asia Times:

When a top US commander in Iraq reported last week that attacks by Shi'ite militias with links to Iran had risen to 73% of all July attacks that had killed or wounded US forces in Baghdad, he claimed it was because of an effort by Iran to oust the United States from Iraq, referring to "intelligence reports" of a "surge" in Iranian assistance.

But the obvious reason for the rise in Shi'ite-related US casualties - ignored in US media coverage of Lieutenant-General Raymond Odierno's charge - is that the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr was defending itself against a rising tempo of attacks by US forces at the same time attacks by al-Qaeda forces had fallen.

-snip-

Odierno claimed intelligence reports supported his contention of an Iranian effort to influence public perceptions of the "surge" strategy. "They're sending more money in, they're training more individuals and they're sending more weapons in."

He repeated the charge in an interview with Michael R. Gordon of the New York Times published on its front page on August 8 under the headline "US says Iran-supplied bomb is killing more troops in Iraq". In that interview, he declared of Iran, "I think they want to influence the decision potentially coming up in September."

What Odierno framed in terms of an Iranian policy, however, can be explained much more simply by the fact that the US military mounted more operations on Muqtada's Mahdi Army during the spring and summer.

Sounds like they're framing the Iranians to force a war to me. Not all that differently than how they framed Saddam for 9/11 so they could go to war with Iraq.

What goes through the minds of these people? Our President is supposed to keep us safe no matter what. Peace is always supposed to be the option and war is supposed to be a reluctant, last ditch effort made in self defense. Your job as President is to keep us OUT of wars. In doing so your job REQUIRES you to use diplomacy, even with those who have not traditionally been our allies or that completely agree with us. You use law enforcement here and abroad (with the help of partner countries) to capture terrorist suspects before they strike. You strengthen our own country's security at airports, nuclear facilities and ports. You make tactical strikes where you need to but with the cooperation of leadership in that country to have help in flushing out the enemy. But you DO NOT STRIKE PRE-EMPTIVELY JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT TO. That is NOT the President's job. Afghanistan you can make a strong case for after 9/11 but Iraq is absolutely wrong and Iran would be as well.

Not to mention our military is stretched beyond their limits. It's to the point where they'll accept anybody. They lowered standards and missed recruitment goals in 2005. They lowered them further and barely reached recruitment goals in 2006.

Much of the money we're sending to the Pentagon to handle this war has gone to overpay contractors like Blackwater, whose mercenaries go to Iraq with no United States military jurisdiction and kill at will. It's become a nightmare and they're killing our troops now... while we pay them!

So back to recruiters, they'll accept anybody right? Well almost anybody. Remember that Max Blumenthal video we posted about drafting College Republicans? Well apparently on townhall.com a College Republican wrote an editorial trashing him for it and proved why those cowardly jerks who used every cheap health excuse in the book, REALLY couldn't serve.

At the July 2007 National College Republican Committee Convention, whining wannabe journalist Max Blumenthal asked attendees why they weren’t fighting in Iraq. The college kids in his amateur ambush video fumbled with their words and gave medical excuses like asthma and bad knees. They were young, nervous and in front of a jerk holding a camera. Guilt isn’t necessary. The reality is that most of us wouldn’t make the cut.

There you have it. College Republicans are physically and mentally inferior to high school dropouts, felons, racists, convicts, and illegal immigrants and cannot join the military. They said it, not me.

That being said, if that is the case, none of them should then ever be considered qualified to be elected for a public office. After all they're too dumb to pass the military recruitment exams, do we really want them working on complex budget issues, passing laws, or worse dealing with complicated policy negotiations? Please. Time to treat this bunch of fools worse than drop outs are treated. At least the drop outs have the courage to stand and fight for their country, unlike these chickenshits who just call for war while hiding behind their parents' money.

-Rp

Where the hell was THIS video in 2004?

Or 2002 for that matter? Everyone's talked about Dick Cheney telling people about how going all the way to Baghdad would be a mistake. Nobody seemed to have video of it when it was most needed during the 2004 elections apparently.

Now you can see it for yourself. He even says it will be a quagmire!

Mark the calendar. It might be the only time Cheney's been right in his entire life.



-Rp

STRATA presents... The New National Anthem

Those of you who know me know I love music. One of the bands I have had the honor of meeting is Strata. In particular I have spoken a couple of times with Eric Victorino (lead singer) and he's a deep and thoughtful guy who has written a pretty cool poetry book called "Coma Therapy" and is very open to conversing with his fans.

They also have two albums out now you should check out:
Strata (Self-titled) and The End of the World

The best song (IMO) off The End of the World (their latest album) is quite political and called, "The New National Anthem". A Youtube poster named "The Mars Army" put the song to clips of the war from the news and it's a very compelling and moving video. Check it out and support Strata!



-Rp

Bush Administration Fueling/Funding Iraqi Civil War

Has anyone stopped to ask, "What if Bush doesn't want to win in Iraq"? I think it's a pretty solid question to ask.

It seems to me we're spending so much time expecting some sort of exit strategy from Iraq that we're missing the overall picture. That being that the Bush Administration is funding the Iraqi Civil War and trying to start World War III.

This sounds insane to the logical person but hear me out.

We're already in Iraq and Afghanistan creating chaos without any sort of plan. We refuse to pull out even if timelines and benchmarks are not reached. Why? What's in this for us? Oil?

Well the region is loaded with oil. So taking out various countries in the regions strengthens our grip on what's out there and available to US oil companies. It also makes certain friends of the corporations and their shareholders very rich when they determine the eaxct supply amount that is put on the market.

This however is something bigger. The Neo-Cons see this as a game of Risk. Taking one major region out is a means to strike and control another. They have been notably upset since the end of the Cold War and this certainly will stoke a new cold war (or possibly World War) with both Russia and China who most certainly would have their interests hurt by us controlling Iranian and Middle Eastern oil.

Consider this: The Bush Administration is now pushing for a $20 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia. You know, the host country for the majority of the 9/11 hijackers? Not to mention the home country of Osama Bin Laden. So he's arming the Saudis who are Sunnis and whom American officials contend are already playing a counterproductive role in Iraq.

But wait, they're using our troops to protect the Shia government. Not to mention this is after the Pentagon helped Prime Minister al-Maliki train Shia death squads to slaughter Sunnis. This new deal arms both groups and puts our troops in the middle of a civil war.

Then you take a look at Iran. Hawks are pressing for war with Iran and the Administration already put out a release stating that they have a right to go to war with "rogue states" and "islamic terrorists" in 2002.

Their two main points in pressing this case are the same ones they tried unsuccessfully to make with Iraq. 1) They have or are trying to obtain weapons of mass destruction and 2) they are funding terrorists that are doing harm to the U.S. (or in this case our soldiers and Iraqi stabilization).

On the first issue we'd probably have been able to stop the Iranian nuclear program or at least know way more about it had they not outed the CIA's covert nuclear counter-profiliferation agent who was working on Iran, Valerie Plame. Of course we all heard how it was for "political" reasons because they wanted to get back at her husband, Joe Wilson, for exposing their lies on yellowcake uranium coming from Niger and being sought by Iraq.

The more logical explanation was that it shut down the CIA's undercover nuclear investigations in Iran and now with incomplete intelligence it makes the case for war that much easier to make. After all we have no idea just how far along their nuclear program is or what they have tried to obtain at this point.

Also we've been advising terrorists inside Iran to cause havoc there and inflame tensions with Ahmenijhad.

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wrote a memo that detailed plans to invade seven countries after 9/11, which General Wesley Clark brought up in this interview. It mentioned, "Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran".

That sounds like a pretty big swath of countries in the ever growing in reality version of Neo-Con Risk.

And the tensions in Iraq only get worse. al-Maliki HATES Gen. Petraeus and is threatening to arm Shia Militias (in response to our arming the Sunnis) if we don't take him and his Bush-ordained view of Iraq out of there.

The funniest part is we already know what Petraeus will say in September because he follows Bush's orders (contrary to that BS line Bush gives about listening to his generals and not legislating what they do from Capitol Hill) and the White House has made sure to send them to RW shills like Fox and Hugh Hewitt to get their message out early.

Here he's causing more problems with Iraqi leadership, has pushed the Bush view on Iraq down their throats and is going to come back here and feed the same crap to us and we're supposed to take him at face value?

Of course at this point why should we take anybody in this Administration at face value on the tensions in the Middle East? It seems to me they'd rather fund terrorists, arm everybody and start a world war to take the entire region and create another century's worth of cold war with Russia and China.

If we fight them there, we don't have to fight them here. Riggghhhttt....

-Rp

Draft College Republicans!

Unfortunately I watched some of the College Republicans' National Convention on C-SPAN late the other night and I must say watching these mindless, misinformed rich kids is a pretty sickening sight.

Max Blumenthal went to the convention and asked the College Republicans who are so gung ho FOR the war, if they would enlist. Not suprisingly none said they would and better yet they described exactly why national health care is something they need to support because as it turns out, Republicans suffer a disproportionate amount of health problems that really need to be taken care of.

Watch the video from maxblumenthal.com, and below go to the CafePress site and pick up your own DRAFT COLLEGE REPUBLICANS sticker. Get the word out about who should be fighting the wars they start.






DRAFT COLLEGE REPUBLICANS CAFEPRESS STORE

-Rp

It's Clearly Time to Stand Down

Well now what is Bush going to say? Is he going to say that even though the Iraqi people elected their Parliament and have a "democracy" that they are wrong and we're going to enforce our imperialism on them anyways?

Iraq Prime Minister al-Maliki sure put Bush in a tough position when he stated on Saturday that the US troops "can leave anytime they want". Then one of his top aides threw this in:

In addition, he said that al-Maliki has problems with the top U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, who he said works along a “purely American vision.”

“There are disagreements that the strategy that Petraeus is following might succeed in confronting al-Qaida in the early period but it will leave Iraq an armed nation, an armed society and militias,” al-Suneid said.

So Petraeus, the guy Bush and the Right Wing hardliners are pushing for us to wait for a September report on is, no surprise here, not taking into account what Iraqis need or want in their own country. How anyone in the media could give the "waiting until September for an honest assessment from the General" line any creedence is beyond me. Face it, Petraeus is Bush's boy. His first media visit was to the Bush Network, er FOX News spouting the line of successes and saying they need more time... like 9 or 10 years more time. Ironically that's the same line the Bush Administration tells every media outlet they encounter.

He was quoted in the New York Times today saying the surge portion of the war won't fully work until "next Spring".

Why are we waiting until September when it's clear what his talking points are?

So the Prime Minister of Iraq wants us out, how about the Parliament of Iraq? Oh yeah, they do too. On May 8th a majority of Iraqi lawmakers signed a petition for the US to set a timetable to withdraw troops. Then on June 5th, this happened:

From alternet.org:

The parliament today passed a binding resolution that will guarantee lawmakers an opportunity to block the extension of the U.N. mandate under which coalition troops now remain in Iraq when it comes up for renewal in December.

-snip-

Reached today by phone in Baghdad, Nassar al Rubaie, the head of the Al-Sadr bloc in Iraq's Council of Representatives, said, "This new binding resolution will prevent the government from renewing the U.N. mandate without the parliament's permission. They'll need to come back to us by the end of the year, and we will definitely refuse to extend the U.N. mandate without conditions." Rubaie added: "There will be no such a thing as a blank check for renewing the U.N. mandate anymore, any renewal will be attached to a timetable for a complete withdrawal."

Without the cover of the U.N. mandate, the continued presence of coalition troops in Iraq would become, in law as in fact, an armed occupation, at which point it would no longer be politically tenable to support it. While polls show that most Iraqis consider U.S. forces to be occupiers rather than liberators or peacekeepers -- 92 percent of respondents said as much in a 2004 survey by the Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies -- the U.N. mandate confers an aura of legitimacy on the continuing presence of foreign troops on Iraq's streets, even four years after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

So there you have it. We're not wanted there. The Iraqis are clearly standing up and now it's our turn to stand down.

Of course this must have pissed off the White House something fierce because you know they made a call when just hours later al-Maliki's aides were backtracking a bit.

Clearly we need to go. We're in the wrong. The General's September speech will be what Bush tells him to say so waiting for him is pointless.

And now, as if that's not enough. The most Evil Man Alive (only because Hitler's dead because I would guess he would try to outflank him for this award), Dick Cheney, is pushing to begin a war with Iran.

If you thought we didn't have allies before for the Iraq war, I would assume we'll have none in Iran.

In fact our moves there (and the missile defense system we're setting up in Europe) is making Russia nervous. They pulled out of an arms treaty because of it and it seems are gearing up for possible action based on protecting themselves, a notion that wouldn't even be thinkable if Bush and Cheney hadn't made it clear that they don't mind invading anyone that disagrees with them. Russia, eager to avoid conflict with us, offered to help with the installation of a missile defense system in a location that was not threatening to their country. It appears Bush refused which pretty much points out why they want it. They want a new cold war as well as a new World War.

Furthering the tensions with another war in the Middle East will only make us the Nazis to the Muslim World. If idiot Americans actually believe that going into Iran is "fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here" when our military is ill-equipped for another war and when the creation of an entire future generational legion of terrorists is inevitable, then these people need to be put in mental health institutions and have their voting privileges revoked.

This Article by William Pitt from Truthout explains how the war in Iran would be a disaster.

We're on the brink people. Just where us "crazy liberals" told you it would go when we were protesting in the MILLIONS the Iraq War BEFORE it began. While you were all ignorant to whether or not Saddam had anything to do with 9/11 or if he had WMDs, WE KNEW. And we saw this coming too.

Wake the fuck up!

It's time to get out of Iraq and leave Iran alone. Only then will Iran feel safe and not feel the need to develop nukes for their own protection and only then will the Russians back down from their current elevated stance. WE are creating our enemies. WE are starting the next World War.

It's not too late to stop it. Call your Congressmen and ask for impeachment today. And if they're Republican, CHALLENGE them on their bullshit assertions about Petraeus' September Report or intelligence on Iran.

It may be our only hope. This is not a war we can win.

-Rp

The Dumbest Man in America?

Yes that's Weekly Standard founder and frequent FOX NEWS contributor William Kristol pretending to shoot a gun. I imagine he likes to pretend he's shooting a gun and playing war, kind of like me and my friends did when we were like Nine.

How else could this guy continually be so wrong and so dumb on issues of war? The man has had pretty much every prediction he has ever made blow up in his face when it comes to Iraq. In fact Glenn Greenwald has about 14 of them right here.

Then, as if that weren't enough, he went out advocating a war with Iran.

Maybe he was trying to get ahead of the curve. After all he and his buddies (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Quayle, etc) have a doctrine for an American Empire as part of their thinktank group, "Project for a New American Century". War with Iran would most obviously take the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts and turn them into a Middle Eastern based World War III.

He came out swinging again in an editorial he wrote for next week's edition of The Weekly Standard entitled, get this, "Keep On Surgin'". Yeah it's fun over there didn't you know?

In his column he says the following:

Over the last few months, the United States (finally) surged in Iraq. Al Qaeda in Iraq has now surged against the surge. Iran is surging against the surge. We're pushing them back. Now the Democrats in Congress, the mainstream media, and the foreign policy establishment have mounted their own surges against the surge. So far, Bush is beating them back. If Bush can hang tough, and General Petraeus can keep on surging, the Defeatists will fail. And the United States will have a good chance to succeed in Iraq.

This guy has to be the dumbest guy in America. Considering he was Chief of Staff to Dan Quayle and considering the idiocy of Bush and Cheney that's an incredible feat to lay claim to. But while Bush and Cheney wrestle for another title, "Most Dangerous Man in America, Kristol gets dumbest hands down. Luckily his effect on actual policy comes from pundity on television and a magazine rather then direct advisory to the Bush White House. But you would never know it since they have followed his exact words thusfar and been wrong on every single thing they have claimed would happen.

I wish I could get paid making ridiculous bullshit up and just consistently predicting false concepts that would come out of the war.

Week after week he's on FOX NEWS, granted they have no care for or concept of pesky facts anyway, but he's on there commenting on the latest news and predicting the next steps.

This is like getting an NFL handicapper that you're paying for betting advice on going 0-14 every week and even though he hasn't won a single game for you, you're calling him on Week 16 taking his picks again. Apparently you didn't learn a damn thing from the first 15 weeks, and neither has FOX, Kristol or this Administration.

Maybe Kristol can serve a purpose. He can keep predicting what we should do and we can do the opposite. After all, a 100% success rate would be a pretty fantastic thing when we haven't had a single success in Iraq other than deposing of Saddam Hussein (who clearly ran the country better than we have).

-Rp

"They Still Have No Plan"

It's the same old song and dance with Bush and his supporters. Right Wing rag, The Washington Times unveiled a ton of gall today by attacking Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Iraq today. They published a hit piece entitled, "They Still Have No Plan" in their editorial section.

Essentially it's a criticism that Democrats have no plan for post-withdrawal Iraq. I'm not sure what plan they are looking for but it seems to be their go to criticism on Democrats when it comes to their opposition to this war. Ever since 2003 when we went in the media has been carrying this Right Wing meme that 'Democrats have no plan so they have no right to criticize Bush'.

That makes absolutely no sense so let's shoot this one down quick.

1. The Democrats were in the MINORITY all the way up until this year. They couldn't pass a damned thing if they wanted to. Every plan at that point was up to Republicans and Bush to come up with.

2. The Democrats currently do not have a VETO PROOF majority. The obstructionist Republicans who want endless war like Bush are still there shooting down opposition to his war.

3. The Bush Administration hasn't had a plan since day one! Tony Blair knew it. They just thought they could roll in and everyone would throw flowers and chocolates their way.

4. There does not need to be a plan. Withdraw to the outside borders and then pull out completely. The ONLY way Iraq will work is if they come to a solution on their own. Our very presence there makes it impossible for the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds to come up with any sort of political solution. One side always views the other with disdain over our presence and many Iraqis of all persuasions are joining in on attacks on us because they don't want our empirical presence. What plan is there to have?

Iraqis have a national pride that is in shambles by our presence. The Iranians won't be able to just swoop in and take over and I'm not even sure Iranian President Ahmenijhad wants to get caught up in this mess currently. If he did the Saudis would become even more involved and the Iraq War would become a full on Middle Eastern civil war. He would have much more to lose in waging a war with the Sunnis than sitting back and waiting to see how things shake out politically in Iraq.

We're pulling out to protect our troops and give Iraqis a chance to decide on their own what future their country will have. As I stated a few days ago, when given the chance after the American Revolution we messed with things a bit and had some uprisings and riots of our own but we got through it. We can't sit there and play babysitter to a country that is uniting behind one cause: us leaving immediately.

Strangely enough Bush's post war plan has been to send in one surge of troops afters another and none of them work. Then those people behind this idiotic surge like John McCain, have no Plan B in case it doesn't work. Since it won't I guess that means the Bush plan is that "We're Fucked".

Finally and I really want to know this. Why are Republicans always asking what our plans are anyway? Every time they get criticized on this war they pull this tired argument out of their ass. They ignore our plans anyway. John Kerry came up with a very comprehensive plan for the Iraq War and eventual redeployment during his 2004 campaign. The media ignored it and continued (with the help of right wing pundits) to claim he had no plan.

I know the Republicans are too stupid to come up with a plan of their own. Using religious faith never really gets you through real life situations after all. But to continually put the failure of Bush's War on the Democrats who really have never had the power to stop this thing and don't currently because they lack the 60 votes for cloture in the Senate, is just a cheap political ploy made by a bunch of desperate hacks.

Republicans have never had a plan for winning the war in Iraq. As my last post details, the only planning they ever did was lining their buddies' pockets.

Speaking of finances, after the last time Republicans got twelve years to run their failure of an economic plan entitled "trickle down economics" they ran up record deficits and put us on the verge of serious recession.

Democrats got into office and eliminated over twelve years of damage in just eight.

Oh, maybe that's it! They have no ideas and nothing they ever come up with works. Democrats are the best at cleaning up their messes. It all makes sense now why we have to do the work they can't do for themselves.

Sort of like an infant that shits in their diaper but can only cry hoping for an adult to change it. We're the adults. And hey, Republicans love their diapers don't they?

-Rp

Bush Administration to Lie About Iraq War Benchmarks

This is not a surprise. After all they have an aversion to the truth. Otherwise why would they refuse to comply with investigation after investigation, refuse subpoenas, refuse to hand over documents, commute law breakers and ignore PDBs and Iraq Study Group recommendations that could save thousands of lives?

Well it turns out they're about to lie again. The New York Times is reporting that Bush is going to go out and baldface lie to the American public by stating that Iraq has made progress on half of the 18 benchmarks that was set for them in the bill that authorized the surge this past January.

That's a lie because as it turns out they have met Zero of those Eighteen benchmarks. Iraqis have no control of their own puppet government and until the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds make their own political pact we can have no effective solution to stop the violence in Iraq. Bush knows it but refuses to let the war go before he leaves office.

Here's a video from Countdown with Keith Olbermann that clearly points out the fallacy of the coming Bush statements:



-Rp

The Four Step Neo-Con Foreign Policy Strategy

With special thanks to Lerkfish at Democratic Underground for coming up with such a perfect analogy.

1. Whack hornet's nest on someone else's property.
2. Take over the neighbor's property for their own protection.
3. Destroy the neighbor's house.
4. Start breeding more hornets.

I couldn't say it better myself.

-Rp

The Hand That Feeds

As most of my friends know, I am a huge Nine Inch Nails fan. Trent Reznor is one of the few creative geniuses in music that has cut through the corporate structure and pushed the boundaries of how the system works. This year he released a concept album called Year Zero and did with the most imaginative marketing concept I have ever seen. He produced an Alternate Reality Game in which fans found USB pens with leaked tracks, image files and clues that led to websites and many encrypted messages. Even phone numbers with recorded messages were put out there. The entire concept was of an totalitarian government, not unlike what Bush and the Neo-cons want America to be, where Americans have to choose whether to remain enslaved or fight back.

On their previous album, "With Teeth", Trent wrote a pretty telling song called "The Hand That Feeds" that asks Americans and specifically Bush followers if they can stand up to their leader and fight back against the propaganda he was forcing onto them.

With Scooter Libby's commutation being on obvious ploy to prevent him speaking out against Bush and Cheney and giving away White House secrets and the Republican Congressmen (Senators Lugar, Domenici, Voinovich, Rep. Doolittle) coming out against Bush's Iraq War (albeit at a time when a vote is not imminent on the topic)... it's a perfect time to ask...

"Will you bite the hand that feeds?"



-Rp

The Bad Democrats

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I started a new job and well, time to blog thins out when you're never home.

Anyways since my last post the most disconcerting thing occurred. The Democratic Cave-in of 2007. Yes it even has a title.

Basically the Democrats did what they always seem to do. Back down.

They had sent the President a timetable in the previous Iraq Reauthorization spending bill and he of course Vetoed it. Somehow he and his spinsters were able to get the Republican contolled media to echo that it was Democrats denying funding to the troops even though they passed the funding and it was Bush vetoing it.

Democrats had to face a ridiculous choice. Sending the bill back repeatedly with the same timetable knowing Bush will veto it every time and hoping to retain the small amount of Republican support needed in the Senate to carry it through, or just taking the timetable out.

Bush played chicken with the Soldiers lives. He knew Democrats cared more about the troops than he did so he gambled that they would fund the troops if he kept vetoing their money. It's sadistic for sure but it's what he did.

All of us on the left were furious with the people we elected. Certainly we felt we elected Democrats in November of 2006 with the impetus to end this war. There were other reasons, corruption etc., but none of them trumped the end of this war.

Realistically though that dream should have ended in November 2006 after those elections. We won but we didn't have enough votes in the Senate to beat Bush. We didn't even have enough to invoke cloture and force bills to an up or down vote.

Obstructionist Republicans held over from the Do Nothing Congress could continue to do what they did best, Nothing. Roll over, sit, lie down, fetch for Bush and Rove. It's their only trick and they kept on doing it.

When the bill came back, they refused to override the veto and fund those troops. Politics after all is more important than human lives.

And now here we are.

I grappled with who to hate. Who to be mad at. Who to feel betrayed by.

The answer was... myself.

It was my idealism and that of many of us on the liberal left that didn't seem to realize that unless our numbers were greater we didn't have the ability to do anything other than investigate.

Impeach? Ha! Even the Republicans with us on Iraq wouldn't join us for that and we wouldn't have close to enough votes to get that through even with every Democrat voting that way. Not to mention there are many DLC or right-leaning Democrats (see: Ben Nelson, Nebraska) who would come out attacking their own if the left were ever to manage such a coup.

See that's another thing. We Democrats are high minded and believe we're above reproach. Impeachment is beneath us. Republicans pulled impeachment out of their asses for oral sex because they didn't like Clinton even though he gave in on many of their policy issues. They're ruthless, heartless and could give a fuck what anyone thinks. Corporate America eats that up and plays up such bravado as false machismo. Democrats and that high minded thinking are considered pussies and spineless wafflers.

It's hilarious since most elected Republicans haven't served a day in the military nor have their children and most elected former military members are Democrats. Just as they painted a Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam as "soft on defense" while his opponent took a deferment for a bad knee and listed jogging as one of his favorite hobbies on his campaign site years later, they can push the envelope of false rhetoric and win.

Stop the War or End Funding? No way! We can't get a bill to cloture with either of those in the Senate. We need 60 votes for that and worse the majority we have hinges on a traitor to the Democratic party, Joe Lieberman.

And therein lies the problem. As much as I despise some of the centrist Democrats who shake and cower in fear of their conservative bases and refuse to tell them the truth and do the right things rather than saving their own skins for future election cycles, they at least stick with us most of the time.

All that searching for a scapegoat and really the only thing we can do is elect more liberal Democrats to the House and Senate to go with a Democratic President in 2008. Then we can reverse this mess and not have to worry about procedural crap like cloture.

In the meantime there's one guy whom we all need to take aim at.

Focus in on this man. He is the reason gaining more Senate seats is crucial. He is supposedly a life long former Democrat but when he finally lost his Democratic primary, he did so in the least gracious fashion ever. He created his own party (one that was so pathetically self involved it was named Connecticut for Lieberman) and with the help of Rove and Bush, ran as an "independent" convincing Fox News to basically openly campaign for him and get Republicans and long time apparently brainwashed Democrats to give him a general election win.

Now he's paying back his masters, supporting them on keeping the debacle in Iraq alive and spouting Administration talking points. He goes to Iraq and the troops know who his master is so they won't even tell him what they really feel about the situation for fear of demotion or worse. He goes off the deep end to prove he's as much of a murdering war monger as his buddies in the White House and declares that we need to begin a war with Iran. He even blocks a no confidence bill on Alberto Gonzales when even Republicans aren't with that guy anymore.

He's completely nuts and clearly Bush's boy. He even said he could vote for a Republican in the 2008 Presidential race. Yet he caucuses with the Democrats and still chairs committees thanks to the Democratic majority (even though he abuses some... he refused to investigate Hurricane Katrina to protect Bush and Rove). While I personally and most other Democrats are sick of this traitor, we can't just expell him from our ranks.

Yes, he's not a Democrat (and funny enough the chair of the CT for Lieberman party wants him to resign from his own party that bears his own name!) and yes he sides with Bush AGAINST us now more often than not. Oh and yes we don't have to give Republicans the organizing ability to change committee chairs if we don't want to...

But as I said before, the Republicans own the media and as "The Anonymous Liberal" pointed out in an excellent post this past February, the media would make it impossible for Dems not to cede power and probably would do serious reputation damage to the party.

Not that the damage WITHIN the party hasn't been done on the Iraq Bill cave, but this from the outside, would be worse.

What to do? How do we get our party back?

Hell, do we even have a party anymore?

I wrestled with all of those questions. In the current political environment, the only thing to do is to keep voting liberal. Work hard for the more liberal Senators (no more Republicrats like Casey from PA just because they have the name and money to whoop an idiot like Santorum without a fight). Get a LARGE majority in both houses and the White House in 2008. Then we can turn it around and kick Lieberman's ass to the curb.

It's not a soothing, comforting answer, but realism needs to trump idealism for the moment and at the moment, the Democrats are the best we've got. Let's get them in and start reversing this course of destruction.

One new Liberal vote at a time.

Rp

You Wanted a Democracy...

And now you got one. Tens of Thousands all protesting the American presence in Iraq. Al-Sadr calling for Iraqis to redouble efforts to force Americans out. We gave them a voice and they are using that voice to say "Get the fuck out!". Of course millions have marched before and during this war in America and abroad to stop this damn thing before and the Idiot King declared that they were focus groups he wouldn't listen to.

Oh and this is the SHIITES that want us gone. They're the ones that are supposedly our ALLIES over there.

What a fucking mess.

-Rp

Pregnant Women, Injured Soldiers Sent Back to Iraq

I almost forgot the most disgusting thing I read over the weekend. Friday night I read a horrifying column on Salon.com.

I guess being a small time blogger, I can be forgiven for not mentioning this. What's the Mainstream Media's excuse though?

From the column:

He was shocked by what he saw inside: There were dozens of other hurt soldiers. Some were on crutches, and others had arms in slings. Some had debilitating back injuries. And nearby was another tent, housing female soldiers with health issues ranging from injuries to pregnancy.

-snip-

Military experts say they suspect that the deployment to Fort Irwin of injured soldiers was an effort to pump up manpower statistics used to show the readiness of Army units.

US News & World Report confirmed that the Military is downgrading serious injuries to send these soldiers back and prop up those readiness statistics.

These bastards know no limit on how low they will sink to get money to their political donors. Contracts and Contributors come first. People are just pawns in their big money game.

If this doesn't show (along with Walter Reed) what this Administration thinks about the troops, nothing does. Support The Troops my ass. How about proving it with some action, not a fucking bumper sticker slogan.

These thugs are inhuman.

-Rp

A Relatively Quiet Weekend

There hasn't been too many of these recently thanks to the White House's excessive use of the Friday News Dump but this weekend rolled by without a new scandal to uncover. So that appears to make this one of a handful of weekends in the past 6 years to go in that direction.

I did find two interesting tidbits of information I wanted to share.

President Bush has pretty much rattled off every lie he can muster as to why Iraq was the right idea. He connected Iraq to al-Qaeda (see below for the truth on that), said they were close to having Nukes after buying yellow cake from Niger, used 9/11, random weapons of mass destruction, Iraqi freedom and democracy, defending them against Iranian intervention. You name it, this crew of liars has used it. Even sickeningly enough the real reason why we're there: Oil.

But after most if not all of these were disproven and failed to capture public sentiment the one he continues to spout is that if we don't kill them there, they'll cross the ocean and kill us here.

Now even THAT has been dismissed by experts.

Bush and his liars just can't catch a break can they?

The experts don't just dismiss it, they accuse Bush of exaggerating. He doesn't do that does he? Oh wait....

As if that weren't enough Iraq's former trade defense and finance minister Ali Allawi, cousin to the former interim prime minister Iyad Allwai, has written a book ripping Bush for their incompetent occupation of his country.

When the people you helped put in place and are some of the very, very few to gain anything from the Iraq mess come out of the woodwork to attack you, you know it's time to get out.

Hell, even 52% of REPUBLICANS say we need to get out of Iraq. The Kool-Aid Drinking die hards have abandoned the cause.

Oh this is Bush. He's not smart enough to get the hint.

-Rp

The Global War on Lying Idiots

It has to be rough to live with yourself knowing you lie about everything. Or at least if you have a conscience that is. I am not so sure Dick Cheney has one so the whole feeling guilty scenario may never play out.

It turns out that Dick is still spouting the same lines in trying to make a pathetic connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Even though the Pentagon released a report on Thursday that contradicts this directly after interrogations of Saddam and other Iraqi officials. Of course this is an Administration that would never let facts get in the way of a great big lie.

The whole point of this thing is to keep the connection going to keep Iraq a central point of attack in the whole unending Global War on Terror.

After all, if it's framed that way nobody will defund the War on Terror right?

Well what if we tossed out that term altogether?

After all there is a war in Iraq and a war in Afghanistan. Using the term, "Global War on Terror" is a piece of propaganda to link 9/11 to all of our military actions and continue funding whatever adventures this Administration wants to partake in. Not to mention being a direct flow of cash from taxpayers to Dick's company, Halliburton.

It seems Democrats have finally wised up to this game and are taking this trick on by requesting that the term "Global War on Terror" no longer be used in future legislation.

Cheney was apoplectic to say the least when spoke with Rush Limbaugh about it yesterday.

Personally I think they fear Democrats having the guts to stand up to even these small breaches of public trust. They know 9/11 was a tragic day that touched the lives of most Americans so they invoke it at every turn and use it as a tool to take taxpayers money and blow it on their wars of choice and their politically contributing contractors of preference.

Every single little step Democrats take to change the tactics used by this Administration is a step in the right direction for a country that has had it's reputation tarnished more than Britney Spears in the past 6 years thanks to the people in power.

-Rp

Quick rebuttal to Bush's threat RE: Soldiers-Iraq

I just wanted to give props to DUer Solly Mack who wrote up this absolutely terrific post with a ton of news links to back it up that shows that Bush is an absolute hypocrite when it comes to talking about unarmed, untrained soldiers being forced to stay in Iraq.

The war has been fully funded, yet Bushco and the Republicans chose to keep the needed armor and training out of their previous bills.

I hope the Administration gets Bunny Shit in their Easter Basket.

Democratic Underground: "For the Record, Mr. Bush."

-Rp

Beating the Bush with the Co-Equal Branch

Well it sure has been one depressing week if you were on the Bush-as-almighty-god bandwagon hasn't it?

You have Alberto Gonzales screwing up a perfectly good plan to eliminate prosecutors that were either going after Republican corruption or not working quick enough for upcoming elections on cases where Democrats were targeted. And then you have the entire Department of Justice going cannibal on one another as they eat themselves alive trying to save their skins.

You also have Democrats thickening their skin and setting timelines and benchmarks on this President and his war before issuing him any more money to fight it. Frankly this should have happened from the beginning but since the sheep that was the Republicans in Congress felt they should give their king total and absolute power, they were just giving the guy blank checks.... which he was signing over to political contributors. Nice...

All the while humvees and soldiers weren't given proper armor, the VA and Walter Reed funding was cut and veterans were put in harm's way constantly. I mean really, how dare Democrats for wanting to get them out of those conditions! Traitors!

It's pretty humorous to the 70% of America who aren't with this President to even contemplate the arguments this guy is making.

He's arguing that calling members of the administration to testify under oath is somehow unprecedented and against executive privilege even though the Republicans called the entire Clinton Administration to the hill to do just that with 1,052 subpoenas to 141 Administration officials resulting in 568 hours of depositions.

He's arguing that putting strings on the troops prevents the commanders from doing their job and that it will somehow prevent success in Iraq.... as if all the blank checks provided a heaping dose of successes in the past.

Democrats are finally toughening up. Sure they aren't going full blown impeachment but they are taking progressively stronger stances to Bush and his Administration's imperial power grab.

Henry Waxman is now investigating ANOTHER LAW Bushco may have broken about White House Records, and he sent an incredibly biting letter to Condi about her ignoring his letters.

It's only a matter of time before the illegal wiretaps are on the investigation block.

I can only imagine how many Americans will be in shock when they hear what comes out of that. All those, "I don't care because I am not doing anything wrong" apologists are going to get a wakeup call when they realize what and who the White House has been wiretapping.

It's conjecture only at this point but I have a pretty strong suspicion that the White House has used this power in a way that made Nixon look like a confident, at peace with the world Saint. Watergate will look less like paranoia run amok as it will be like a jaywalking charge in comparison to vehicular manslaughter.

That's how much worse I anticipate Bushco's actions will end up looking. We can only wait and see. For now, open up the popcorn as it looks like two years of criminal hell for the most delusional bunch ever to seize power in Washington.

-Rp