Neocon godfather Irving Kristol once famously said that "a neoconservative is a liberal who's been mugged by reality." By that standard, the political right will need to coin an altogether new term to describe John McCain in the wake of the beating he has taken over the past several days. In the span of just two weeks, McCain has seen Barack Obama's call for a strategic refocus from Iraq to Afghanistan validated by the Pentagon and in Baghdad. And now, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has come out in favor of Obama's approach to drawing down U.S. forces in his country.
After last week’s adventure in craziness, watching my "team" descend into the same hysteria that Limbaugh and (I love Keith’s name for him) Bill-o the Clown propagates, I announced that I could not consort with the sort of seriously bonkers crowd that hangs around Daily Kos, and would henceforth move my invaluable wares to the TPM Café. I decided to post my unbelievably boffo essay about how the New Yorker cover was likely to cost Sen Obama the election since it would be taken as proof positive by the rubes out there that what they thought to be true had been proven on both sites. Amazingly, the crazies found it at both places and said roughly the same thing. (One poster sought to assure me that the cover wasn’t so bad that Senator Obama could still recover from it. I thanked him).
1848 - The first women's rights convention, called by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia C. Mott, was held in Seneca Falls, New York.
1870 - The Franco-Prussian war began.
COINCIDENCE? I think NOT!
Quote:
"In the early days of woman-suffrage agitation, I saw that the greatest obstacle we had to overcome was the bible. It was hurled at us on every side."
-- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, at Seneca Falls, 1848
Now that it seems certain impeachment isn’t going to happen, I’ve been thinking about what other recourse Americans have to ensure that justice is done – what we can do to remember, revile, punish, and avoid repeating the deeds of the worst President this country has ever had.
Amazingly as GWB keeps moving closer to Obama's Iraq policy, finally the MSM takes notice and reports that in fact GWB has moved towards Obama's policy. As Keith Olberman said,"Mr. President, if you would like to follow Obama's lead for foriegn policy over the next 6 1/2 months that is fine with us."
I was watching the Situation Room today while eating my lunch, and I nearly choked on a cucumber when I heard this from Republican strategist Terry Jeffrey:
The question is, is Medicare socialism? My answer is yes, of course it is. Socialism is government ownership of something.
... of Cheney, or Bush, isn't going to happen.
There simply isn't enough time left on the play clock.
That doesn't mean that Kucinich and company are tilting at windmills, however. The impeachment movement is fulfilling a very important role, one vital to the welfare of our democracy. It is using the Republican's most potent weapon against them.
Fear.
Not the same way they use it against us. We are making them fear for the only thing they really care about... their own asses.
Nope, impeachment isn't going to happen. But that's OK.
Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over."
President-elect Bush vows that "together, we can put the triumphs of the recent past behind us."
"My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."
You would think those are just "general" things from the Onion, a site based on satire and humor. Well normally I laugh when reading the Onion, not this time.
Here we go again. The Mouth of Bush speaketh yet another time with its last gasping, dying breath. It senses November approaching and knows that the End is Near. So what's there to lose? I am sure you've all heard statements from Bush administration and so-called Iraqi government regarding something something troop reduction/withdrawal something. I call it "so called" Iraqi government because it would not last a month without direct U.S. logistical, military and financial support. Please join me as we look at this latest attempt by Bushists to say nothing concrete yet appear to promise something the voters want.
George Bush is a man of his word...he will never, ever, ever set a timeline to withdraw troops from Iraq. He will however set a horizon. Via Atrios:
President Bush and Iraq's prime minister have agreed to set a "time horizon" for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq as security conditions in the war-ravaged nation continue to improve, White House officials said here Friday. [...]
"In the area of security cooperation, the president and the prime minister agreed that improving conditions should allow for the agreements now under negotiation to include a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals...The president and prime minister agreed that the goals would be based on continued improving conditions on the ground and not an arbitrary date for withdrawal."
In other words, nothing changed, just a little PR to make any agreement to leave troops in Iraq that Bush signs a little easier to shove down the throats of the American people. And remember, to John McCain, the horizon can be 100 years from now because after all, bringing home the troops is "not too important" to him.
As a mindless Friday diversion here are Letterman's top (er... bottom) 10 George W. Bush moments (in case you've forgotten how embarrasing he truly is).
Judiciary Chairman John Conyers is set to begin "preliminary hearings" on Dennis Kucninch's article of impeachment on Thursday, July 25, according to impeachment activists working the Hill. Conyers is tying himself in knots trying to avoid using the word "impeachment," but that's what Kucinich's article is: an article of impeachment against George Bush, tightly focused on claims that Saddam possessed WMD and that he had a connection to 9/11, in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
The congressional game is to attempt to appease the impeachment movement with some sort of action while keeping it as quiet as possible, lest the general electorate catch wind that, coming to life creaking and groaning, the sinews of democracy are actually working and might yet shift into high gear with a push. Once you give people hope, all kinds of nasty things start to happen, in congress's view. People who have never called their congressman start calling. People who have checked-out in disgust start reading the paper.
Congress has come this far only by being manhandled by Americans of all political stripes. The crucial break of 9 Republicans,..
One of the enduring memes employed by the Republican Party and more recently by McCain himself is the assertion that the surge has worked and that we are finally succeeding in the war in Iraq. Like many here I call bullshit, but with caveats I think are important to the political discourse.
The United States and Iraq have agreed to seek "a general time horizon" for deeper reductions in American combat troops in Iraq.
This is excellent news because, not only does it give us hope that we might finally get our troops out of this senseless war, but also we might finally be on track to meet our inevitable Orwellian language conversion.
More below the fold.
Eight days ago, I saw the video of the second meeting Veterans for Peace held with Congressman John Conyers and ran completely out of patience.
The wrongdoing of this administration is clear. We have been presented with lie after lie and excuse after excuse by this complicit Congress for a lack of movement on the impeachment issue. The Bush administration has been cited with NINE subpoenas by Congress that they have completely ignored.
Americans can genuinely take pride in the Constitution of the United States, it is unequaled among nations of the world. Yet Americans tend to take pride in America for the wrong things, and tend to violate their most precious asset, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
American soldiers and Presidents of the United States take an oath to defend their nation but the oath requires them to also protect and defend the US Constitution.
The greatest tragedy of the Bush Administration is the blatant violation of the Constitution and Bill of rights. In violating the Constitution, President Bush has trashed each soldier under his command who took the oath to defend and protect the Constitution. Americans have every right to be proud of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and Americans should be ashamed of the violation of the Constitution by President Bush's spying on American citizens without a justified Warrant.
