Pentagon Recruiting Options

Daily Kos has an update on the College Republicans Conference. Everyone out there seems to be gung ho for the war. But, doesn't seem like they are signing up.

So, maybe the Pentagon needs to go where the supporters of the war are to sign them up. I bet they don't even have a recruiting table over at the College Republicans conference.

Clearly, the Pentagon might find a couple of young recruit potentials over at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Start with Jenna and Barbara...they aren't doing much. But there are plenty of other young able bodies working there.

Try Capitol Hill. Place is crawling with young Republicans who support the war...lots of GOP interns there this summer, too. Surely, their bosses would hold their jobs for them. And, they are already being paid with tax dollars. Why isn't the Pentagon recruiting there?

Find the bars where the young Repubs are drinking and sign them up after they've had a few. (Lots of them are at gay bars so that could be a little dicey, but what the hell.)

Actually, why haven't they set up a recruiting table at the Heritage Foundation dorms? They have that expansive intern program, too.

The Penatagon just needs to go where the war's supporters are. It took me 5 minutes to come up with this list. I know there are other pools of young GOP boys and girls who think George Bush is doing the right thing in Iraq. They need to get their butts over there. Read More......

Dan Froomkin gets Karl Rove

From today's White House Briefing Column:

Karl Rove didn't get George W. Bush this far just by luck. Rove has a brilliant and so far unbeatable strategy when it comes to political warfare: He doesn't defend his candidate's weaknesses, he attacks his opponent's strengths. Unapologetically.

Consider the 2004 campaign, when Rove was faced with a Vietnam problem. A war hero was running against his boss, who had opted to stay well out of harm's way. Rather than defend, Rove attacked -- and put John Kerry on the defensive.

Today, Democrats are uniting against the war and the public is increasingly worried and critical about Bush's leadership. So what's Rove doing? Rather than defend against their criticisms, Rove has decided to go for the jugular.

The most compelling anti-war arguments are that the war in Iraq was a diversion from the war on terror and that American troops are dying daily for no good reason. So Rove's response is to liken war critics to al Qaeda sympathizers intent on subverting the American military.

Rove is a bully. A strategic bully.

The only way to fight a bully is to go for their jugular. Hit back hard and play to win. Clearly, from the reaction on the blogs, we get that. Does anyone else? Read More......

Gay bar blogging

At the local gay diner. Cheers. After this week i need a break.

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Friday Orchid Blogging

Brassia Eternal Wind

A very cool plant, easy to grow (for me), likes a good amount of water, let it almost dry before watering again, and give it as much sunlight as it can take. Mine blooms once a year, so far, and it has this wonderful long spike of big spidery-type blooms, like this. Has a very slight, though very pretty, scent as well. Just a very cool plant to grow, and like I said, not particularly hard.

Oh, and blogger has some new photo feature now, so you can click on the picture to see a larger version. Enjoy. Read More......

Thank God

Her boobs are back. What will the Concerned Women for America think?! Read More......

Cheney speaks about Gitmo detainees

"They're living in the tropics. They're well fed. They've got everything they could possibly want." - source: The NewsHour tonight

Uh, except freedom? Read More......

Rick Santorum distances himself from Karl Rove's attacks on Dems!

Ok, someone is desperate for re-election.

From Tapped:

RICK SANTORUM: ROVE DOESN'T SPEAK FOR ME. This afternoon, Tapped called the offices of every Republican senator and asked their press staff the following: 'Does Karl Rove speak for Senator X in his recent comments on
liberals and September 11?'

Several offices had no comment. Many transferred us into voicemail boxes, and we plan to call them back on Monday if they don¹t respond. But we got two offices to react. While Kay Bailey Hutchinson's staff told us she agrees with Rove¹s remarks, Rick Santorum's communications director, Robert Traynham, suggested that the Pennsylvanian had a different reaction. He told me: 'Karl Rove speaks for himself. He doesn't speak for the senator. On 9-11, there was no such thing as a Republican or a Democrat, and that's what the senator believes.'

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Good lynching op ed by one of our readers

Excellent Read More......

"The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House" -- The Americablog review

NOTE: On Fridays and down times, we are considering post reviews and previews of books, and the like that should be of interest to politically minded bloggers. Hey, we're reading them anyway -- might as well let you know what we think. Tell us if you think it's appropriate. Coming next week: "1776" by David McCullough."


"THE SURVIVOR: BILL CLINTON IN THE WHITE HOUSE"
By John F. Harris
($29.95; Random House)

While the muckraking book on Hillary is getting trashed (even by the New York Post), this look at Clinton's run for the Presidency and White House years has vaulted onto the charts. Harris, a reporter for the Washington Post, happily doesn't have an ax to grind or a career to burnish. He's not trying to praise Clinton or denounce him. Harris just lays out as factually as possible the eight years that Clinton served the country, the people he worked with and the personal traits -- conciliation, empathy, delaying tough decisions -- that served Clinton so well in so many ways but doomed him on the Paula Jones scandal.

Some unexpected heroes emerge here (including Lloyd Bentsen, who Harris says Clinton curried favor with and was rather in awe of) as well as some who come of more poorly than in the past (including, perhaps, George Stephanopoulos). And Harris reminds us that we can blame Newt Gingrich in part for Monica Lewinsky (it was Gingrich's ploy of shutting down the government that led to a skeleton White House staff and thus the conditions for their first liaison).

As you'd expect from a reporter, the style is no-nonsense and straightforward. It all comes in a rush -- Gore's contributions and political caution, Hillary's loyalty and brash sense of purpose, the Karl Rove-ian figure of Dick Morris, and the constant polling that both allowed Clinton to pursue the policies he believed in and led Clinton to policies he hadn't considered.

Perhaps the book's signal achievement is the overwhelming sense of crisis after crisis and issue after issue that threatens to swamp even the most capable president. As welfare reform and Bosnia and Haitian refugees and midterm elections and the realignment of NATO and Boris Yeltsin's drunkenness and other topics demand attention and affect each other in unexpected ways, you begin to appreciate the awesome responsibility of the Presidency.

Harris hasn't written the definitive account of Clinton and those years -- it will take decades, not to mention the release of classified documents and private papers and public memoirs before someone can have enough of the facts to do that. But this sober book is compelling and blessedly free of partisanship. When Clinton returns to center stage (As the head of the UN? As the President's spouse?), anyone looking for perspective on his personality and presidency would do well to start here.

-- Michael Giltz Read More......

Stop Ronald Reagan

I'm serious. Enough of the abuse of an old man's memory for partisan political gain. Go here and vote, or the right-wing freaks are going to pick Reagan as the man of the century. Apparently it's already on a number of conservative Web sites. I'm sorry, but that's just gross. And remember you can cast 3 votes, so do all 3. Read More......

Who said that?

"Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

-Hermann Goering 4/18/46, when the gig was up
(http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.htm)

And now you know the REST of the story... Read More......

My new RADAR article on lynching is now up

From RADAR:

Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), who added her name to the resolution after being browbeaten by callers for a week, echoed an excuse used by many of the senators: While she abhors lynching, “you don’t have to cosponsor everything that you are in favor of.”

Fair enough. Perhaps Ms. Hutchison and her all-male posse weren’t sucking up to the racist wing of the Republican Party. Maybe they were simply being good small-government conservatives who don’t sign on to every Tom-Dick-and-Harry resolution that crosses their desks. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, Radar thought it might be useful to find out what other important resolutions the Lynch Mob has cosponsored recently.

Senators Hutchison and Cornyn, both of Texas, cosponsored a resolution “commending the Lady Bears of Baylor University for winning the 2005 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.” Alexander, Cochran, and Gregg (NH) cosponsored “National Airborne Day.” Thomas and Enzi cosponsored “The National Day of the American Cowboy.” Bennett (UT), Gregg, Lott, Sununu (NH), and Thomas cosponsored a resolution designating March 25, 2005, “Greek Independence Day.” Smith authored a resolution for the “victims of communism.” And just in time for Father’s Day, Alexander, Bennett, Cochran, Cornyn, and Lott took time out to cosponsor a Hallmark-ready resolution “protecting, promoting, and celebrating fatherhood.” Perhaps they would have cosponsored the lynching resolution if the victims had been Greek airborne cowboys or Cuban refugees.

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US has Mad Cow

Congrats, George, I knew if there were any leader who could let this problem get out of control, it'd be you. Read More......

The text of Karl Rove's remarks

It's quite clear he was talking about Democrats. Oh, and by the way, apparently when Democrats look at America, all they see is gulags and Nazi Germany. Actually, I love America. It's Bush and his cronies who are adopting the policies of McCarthy and the worst governments in history. Read More......

Open thread

Dupont circle metro. Having coffee with demstv folks.

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Friday Afternoon Open Thread

Fill us all in... Read More......

No Surprise, Bush Still Can't talk straight about Iraq

More blah, blah, blah....this time with the Prime Minister of Iraq. Apparently, the new line of attack on the insurgents from the White House is that that they know how to manipulate the media via the Washington Post:

They try to kill and they do kill innocent Iraqi people, women and children because they know that the carnage that they reap will be on TV and they know that it bothers people to see death.

But, the real news about Iraq can be found in one story from MSNBC:

Many more Americans soldiers are dying:

A suicide car bomber slammed into a 7-ton U.S. military vehicle in Fallujah, killing five Marines and a Navy sailor, Marine Corps sources told NBC News, adding that at least three of the dead were female Marines and that 13 others were wounded.

Devastation continues for Iraqis:

And in a devastating escalation in insurgent attacks in the capital, a string of car bombings carried over into Thursday morning with four more blasts that killed at least 15 people and wounded 28.

Overall, Thursday’s violence across Iraq left at least 20 civilians killed and 37 wounded.

The number of Insurgents is increasing:

Continued bloodshed underscores comments from the top American commander in the Persian Gulf, who told lawmakers on Thursday that the Iraqi insurgency has not grown weaker over the past six months.

“I believe there are more foreign fighters coming into Iraq than there were six months ago,” Gen. John Abizaid said during a contentious Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. “There’s a lot of work to be done against the insurgency.”

It's like Bush and Cheney have confused "last throes" with the grand finale of fireworks. Read More......

Another quickie open thread

Before I run out to a lunch meeting, I wanted to remind folks we have MANY more t-shirts now in the AMERICAblog online store, and that AMERICAblog gets a good amount of the proceeds of each sale, so consider donating by buying something.

We've got lots of stuff now, and LOTS coming in the next few days that I know you'll like. But for now, we've got FIRE KARL tshirts, Bill Frist is in a Persistent Vegetative State, Ask me about the Downing Street Memo, I love AMERICAblog, and more. Check em out and spread the word.

And now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

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Rasmussen poll: Bush more responsible than Saddam for war in Iraq

And Rasmussen is considered more of a conservative-friendly pollster, I've always heard.

49% Say Bush Responsible for Provoking Iraq War
44% Say Hussein
Survey of 1,000 Adults

June 20-21, 2005

June 23, 2005--Forty-nine percent (49%) of Americans say that President Bush is more responsible for starting the War with Iraq than Saddam Hussein. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that 44% take the opposite view and believe Hussein shoulders most of the responsibility.

In late 2002, months before the fighting began, most Americans thought that Hussein was the one provoking the War. Just one-in-four thought the President was doing the provoking at that time.

I think the next chapter in Bush's wag-the-dog is going to be gays? What do you think? We ought to have a bookie run the numbers - who's the next innocent target of Bush's attempt to distract attention from his plummeting poll numbers, nearly 1800 dead Americans in Iraq, and the fact that the Downing Street Memo proves he lied to Congress and the American people in order to trick us into going to war in Iraq? Read More......

Open thread - Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling

There was a very important ruling in the Supreme Court yesterday. We simply didn't have time to cover it, so I'm hoping you guys can get into the details in this thread.

Read more here Read More......

Karl Rove's phone number

(202) 456-2369

Be sure to call his office at the White House and send some love. Read More......

Ex-Marine explains why the Rove issue matters

From one of our comments sections:

It IS really worth spending time on. Take it from an ex-marine. If someone hits you, you got to hit back harder. If you don't, you look like a wimp and nobody likes wimps (on the right or the left). Tom is right. Having "balls" doesn't necessarily mean coninuing to ask for Rove's apology but instead turn it into our favor by stating at a time of war Bush (who is the commander and chief)should be trying to unite the country not diving the country. Bush is not then a leader. Also go on the offensive and push for accountability for the Iraq war, etc. Also point out all their failings over and over again. Americans are waking up to what the Whitehouse is doing and the Bush team is scared. When was the last time you see Andy Card, Cheney, Rove, Bartlett on so many programs. They know they are way behind with the American people.

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If you're a Democrat in the US military, you're apparently a traitor

Kos is getting feedback that some US soldiers in harm's way are pissed as hell that Karl Rove just suggested THEY don't care about Osama bin Laden, not to mention Rove and Bush think they obviously don't care about whether their own comrades in arms die, and actually HOPE they'll do, according to Rove.

This is an email Markos just got:

Listen, I'm pissed as hell at Rove. I am a democrat and have been forever. (I'm 54) ... my two kids who just happen to be in the US Army serving are also democrats. My son and daughter both joined as soon as they possibly could after 9/11.

So far they are both safe from harm (no thanks to Rove...).

My son and daughter both emailed me last night wanting to know just who in the hell the Rove guy is. They both want to plaster his face everywhere around the bases they are stationed. It seems that Rove didn't know that a good percentage of enlisted folk were Democrats. They like to say around the bases that republicans don't volunteer.

So Karl Rove thinks ever Democrat in the military is a traitor who sucks up to Osama bin Laden and wants to see their fellow service members dead.

Got any Democrat soldiers out there? Spread the word. Read More......

Anti-Karl Rove Action Alert

1. CALL THE NJ GOP CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR
Atrios suggests we all do the following. I agree:

This week Karl Rove headlined a couple of fundraisers for the Republican candidate for governor of New Jesrsey, Doug Forrester.

Call his campaign office and demand to know if Forrester stands by Karl Rove's assertion that Democrats like Dick Durbin are motivated by a desire to see troops die (especially if you live in New Jersey or imagine that you do). Demand that he return the money he raised. Find out if he's proud to stand with Karl Rove, and if also thinks that New Jersey Democrats are motivated by a desire to see our troops die.

609-452-0101
email: info@doug2005.com

2. CALL MAYOR BLOOMBERG OF NYC
GOP Mayor Bloomberg of NYC has refused to repudiate what Rove's, Mehlman's, and the White House's assertion that YOU want to kill the troops and didn't give a damn about September 11. And remember folks, this is New York City, if they want to play that "liberal" card, let them. 80% of the city would call itself "liberal." So Bush thinks 80% of New Yorkers didn't give a damn about September 11. You're traitors, you dishonor the dead. When your friends died that day, you wanted to give Osama a hug.

Call Mayor Bloomber and demand he publicly repudiate the White House's slander against New Yorkers and all those who survived September 11. Bloomberg's wishy-washy statement about how we wishes all sides would stop politicizing September 11 is cute, but "all sides" weren't politicizing it. Only one party has. That would be the party he invited to hold its patriotic orgasm of a convention there last fall, the one that politicized September 11.

It's time for Bloomberg to tell New Yorkers, is he with them or against them? Does he stand by the White House's words that 80% of New Yorkers are motivated by a desire to kill our troops, and that 80% of NYers didn't give a damn about September 11? Answer the damn question, or don't be mayor.

Email bloomberg here.

Then make some phone calls to Bloomberg's press people:

Edward Skyler, Robert Lawson, Jennifer Falk (212) 788-2958


3. CALL GOP NY GOVERNOR PATAKI
Pataki refused to even give a wishy-washy answer yesterday about the White House's slander of NYers and all Americans. He stood by Rove 100%. Give him a call too, and demand that he publicly repudiate this disgusting use of the 9/11 dead to help George Bush's polls.

Main governor's office phone: 518-474-8390, 212-681-4580
Email the governor here

Lynn Rasic (Governor)
(212) 681-4640 Read More......

White House: What Rove said was "obviously" true

White House spokesman Dan Bartlett this morning on MSNBC: "Karl was giving a speech in which he was pointing out obvious public record."

Huh, I'd love to know what's in the obvious public record that Senator Durbin is motivated by a desire to murder US troops. That I didn't give a damn about September 11, and that I and most of you didn't want to go after the Taliban in Afghanistan, since in fact something like 95% of all Dems were on board with the war.

So, what "obvious public record" showed that Senator Durbin's "motive" was to kill the troops? What obvious public record showed that Democrats wanted to give Osama therapy?

Tim Grieve writes on Salon:

Ah, says Mehlman, but those were Democrats. "Karl didn't say the Democratic Party," Mehlman told the Washington Post. "He said liberals."

Well, that's just great then. Can we now assume that Mehlman and his fellow Republicans have decided that they'll no longer use the word "liberal" to refer to "Democrats" generally? From here on out, will Mehlman insist that his party-mates make a careful distinction between, say, "Democrats" like John Kerry and Hillary Clinton and "liberals" like Michael Moore?

Don't count on it: Republicans have put years of work into making "liberal" a dirty word, and they're going to keep on using it to describe Democrats every time they can. Indeed, Mehlman's careful distinction between "Democrats" and "liberals" didn't even survive the duration of Rove's slanderous speech. After charging that the comments of "Democrat" Dick Durbin were "putting our troops in greater danger," Rove said: "No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals."

But Durbin was one of the "Democrats" who voted in favor of the post-9/11 resolution, so he isn't a "liberal" under Mehlman's definition. So how do Durbin's remarks reveal the true motives of "liberals"? We thought "Democrats" and "liberals" were different things, Ken? Or could it be that Rove was just wrong?

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The White House says Republicans who aren't "conservative" are traitors

Yep. The latest spin from the White House is that Karl Rove suggested that only "liberals" hated America, wanted to kill our trips, and didn't give a damn about September. But that's not what Rove said. If the White House wants to play the "he only said 'liberal'" game, then let's play it. Examine Rove's comments again:

"Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers," Rove said. "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war.... Conservatives saw what happened to us on 9/11 and said we will defeat our enemies. Liberals saw what happened to us and said we must understand our enemies.... No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals," Rove said.

You see, only "conservatives" cared about 9/11. Only conservatives thought the attack was "savage." As the White House now tells us, the word "liberal" and "conservative" does not cover ALL Democrats and Republicans, only a small part. So, the White House feels that lots of Republicans are traitors who want to kill our troops. Only the "good" Republicans, the "conservatives," cared about September 11. Get it?

Yes, let's play this semantic game, Mr. Bush. Explain to the majority of the nation and at least half of your party why you think they hate the troops and hate America. Read More......

More "last throes" -- Four Five more Marines dead in Iraq

MSNBC reports on the latest suicide car bombing that killed four five US Marines in Iraq.

UPDATE: MSNBC is now reporting that three of the dead are women. Wonder if the MSM will give those three dead women -- who died in the service of their country -- the same kind of attention that they are giving the missing Alabama girl in Aruba -- who was on vacation in the Carribean. Read More......

White House in full spin mode on Rove

Just saw Dan Bartlett, sporting the goofiest smile, on the Today Show "explaining" the Rove controversy. See, we got it all wrong. Rove was only talking about some liberals.

So, when the Republicans castigate liberals, sometimes they mean all Democrats and sometimes they mean just some. Got it? Of course, Bartlett and the White House are lying about this, too. They are trying to spin themselves out of their latest politcal quagmire.

Karl Rove blasted every Democrat the other night. And he needs to quit or be fired. Read More......

US image problems continue

Even the UK has a more positive view of China than the US, 65% to 55% and in France, Spain and the Netherlands, the numbers were roughly 58% favorable rating for China and only 43% favorable rating for the US. Turkey, Pakistan and Jordan gave around 20% favorable ratings for the US. In the end, few people are buying into the Bush doctrine for war and US-led efforts for spreading democracy.

If only those people knew about our gourmet meals at the tropical paradise in Cuba. Read More......

Cheney explains what he meant by "last throes", holidays in the sun and more WWII comparisons

Uh, what?

"If you look at what the dictionary says about throes, it can still be a violent period, the throes of a revolution," he said. "The point would be that the conflict will be intense, but it's intense because the terrorists understand that if we're successful at accomplishing our objective -- standing up a democracy in Iraq -- that that's a huge defeat for them.

"We will succeed in Iraq, just like we did in Afghanistan.[Huh? Did we? That too seems to have plenty of political and violent problems, not to mention the increasing drugs proplem.] We will stand up a new government under an Iraqi-drafted constitution. We will defeat that insurgency, and, in fact, it will be an enormous success story."

And on Gitmo, brace yourself for this because it's a new classic. The GOP obviously thinks that people are going to buy into the "pampered prisoner" stories, with images of oven friend chicken and tropical beaches.

"They're living in the tropics. They're well fed. They've got everything they could possibly want," the vice president said.

Once again trying to also raise the comparisons to WWII, Cheney is now saying that the insurgency is much like the Battle of the Bulge or Battle of Okinawa. Hmm, slight hiccup here Mr Cheney because neither battle lasted more than two months. I know that you skipped out on your military service but you can still read a book. Read More......

Rove Controversy is Front Page in Wash. Post

Democrats Call for Rove to apologize

Actually, Democrats want Rove to resign, or better yet, get fired.

All in all, it's a pretty good article and clearly, this story has legs. Dan Balz does manage to work in both of Rove's key lies: that "Liberals" didn't want to retaliate for 9/11 and that Democrats are somehow motivated by the desire to have our troops killed.

Knowing that the White House Deputy Chief of Staff said that crap and you also know one thing: Karl Rove has to quit or get canned. Read More......