Bush is still the bubble boy

The White House is pretending that Bush is out among the people...learning and stuff. But Froomkin knows better:

I've written a fair amount about the Bush Bubble over the past nearly three years. And it seems to me that, with a tiny handful of exceptions, the bubble is still fully operational.

When it comes to Iraq in particular, Bush has no interest in engaging in genuine dialogue with people who disagree with him -- even though polls suggest those people now represent a large majority of the American public.

He has no interest in actually arguing the merits of his approach, or substantively defending against the increasingly focused critique by congressional Democrats.

Rather, he describes his approach in platitudes, and uses inflated rhetoric to mock the made-up arguments of imaginary opponents. He counts on the skillful use of imagery and human backdrops to deliver his very simple core message -- "I am protecting you" -- without actually making his case.

He hides behind the presidency.

Brilliant analysis of the situation. Every member of the press corps who covers Bush must know this to be true. Yet, they dutifully report that Bush is reaching out....or that he is engaged...or some other talking point foisted on them by the White House staff. They live in their own bubble.

Bush is a disaster. He has no concept of reality. And, a lot of people have died -- and will die -- because of his failed presidency. Read More......

Keeping track of who's naughty and nice

Bob Geiger is keeping track of Democratic Senators and where they stand on Joe Lieberman's effort to destroy the Democratic party while winning the Republican vote. Read More......

The Fix does a wave analysis

In today's column, Chris Cilizza does an analysis of polls to see if the Democratic wave is building. He found that the average lead for Democrats in generic polls is 14.8% and asks the key question on the mind of every political junkie:

So is now the time to conclude that a Democratic wave is building that will sweep Republicans out of a House majority in November?

The answer, according to Charlie Cook and Stu Rothenberg, is a guarded yes.

"If you take an average of the last three or four polls, because any one can be an outlier in either direction, you can determine which way the wind is blowing, and whether the wind speed is small, medium, large or extra-large," said Cook. "The last three generics that I have seen have been in the 18 or 19 point range, which is on the high side of extra large. That suggests the probability of large Democratic gains."

"The generic surely reflects voters dissatisfaction with the President and his party and their inclination to support Democrats in the fall," agreed Rothenberg. "The size of the Democrats' generic advantage also can't be ignored. It too suggests the likelihood of a partisan wave, even though it does not guarantee the fate of any individual Republican incumbent."

There are still 12 long weeks to go til election day. Read More......

Iraqis: Reality worse than U.S. believes

The Republicans refuse to tell the truth to the American people, and apparently they aren't telling the truth to George Bush, or he just doesn't care. Either way, this is what you get when you elect an incompetent man and an incompetent political party to head our country.

[Iraqi officials'] worst fear, one that some U.S. soldiers share, is that top officials don't really understand what's happening....

"As an intelligence officer ... I have had the chance to move around Baghdad on mounted and dismounted patrols and see the city and violence from the ground," wrote one U.S. military officer in Iraq.

"I think that the greatest problem that we deal (besides the insurgents and militia) with is that our leadership has no real comprehension of the ground truth. I wish that I could offer a solution, but I can't. When I have briefed General Officers, I have given them my perspective and assessment of the situation. Many have been surprised at what I have to say, but I suspect that in the end nothing will or has changed."

Read More......

Open Thread

About the only thing that gets cable news more giddy than a terror scare is a Jon Benet story. That'll occupy them for the next couple days.

What's the latest real news? Read More......

Former British ambassador/whistleblower skeptical of new terror alert

You may recall that Amb. Craig Murray is the man who risked his career, and lost it, speaking out about the outrageous human rights abuses in Uzbekistan, a country that was the US' big ally in the aftermath of September 11, even though it's run by a Stalinist dictator (seriously). Well, Amb. Murray spoke out about the abuses and got canned, reportedly at the request of the Americans.

Point being, this guy isn't just some nut:

I have been reading very carefully through all the Sunday newspapers to try and analyse the truth from all the scores of pages claiming to detail the so-called bomb plot. Unlike the great herd of so-called security experts doing the media analysis, I have the advantage of having had the very highest security clearances myself, having done a huge amount of professional intelligence analysis, and having been inside the spin machine....

None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time.

In the absence of bombs and airline tickets, and in many cases passports, it could be pretty difficult to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that individuals intended to go through with suicide bombings, whatever rash stuff they may have bragged in internet chat rooms....

In all of this, the one thing of which I am certain is that the timing is deeply political. This is more propaganda than plot. Of the over one thousand British Muslims arrested under anti-terrorist legislation, only twelve per cent are ever charged with anything. That is simply harrassment of Muslims on an appalling scale. Of those charged, 80% are acquitted. Most of the very few - just over two per cent of arrests - who are convicted, are not convicted of anything to do terrorism, but of some minor offence the Police happened upon while trawling through the wreck of the lives they had shattered.

Be sceptical. Be very, very sceptical.

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The Allen campaign just keeps making the Macaca story worse

The Allen campaign has come up with another very tortured explanation for the "Macaca" scandal. Apparently, in their world, calling Mr. Sidarth a "shithead" is somehow acceptable. Seriously, that's their explanation. They're claiming that Allen meant to call the guy "a shithead."

Makes this whole thing even more suspicious, considering shithead doesn't sound a lot like macaca - yet a French slur for dark-skinned north Africans sounds exactly like macaca, and George Allen speaks French and his mom was a white French citizen from north Africa. Gee what a coincidence.

As for Allen's "apology," he didn't apologize to Sidarth at all, he told a reporter he was sorry. And he didn't even say he was sorry - he gave one of those politician apologizes where you say you're if the other guy was offended for misunderstanding you. Now that's the Christian way.

This entire affair calls into question whether George Allen has what it takes to be a US Senator, let along a serious presidential candidate. Not to mention, don't his evangelical supporters frown on this kind of talk?

What will tomorrow's explanation be? Read More......

Northwest Airlines advises employees to save money by picking stuff out of the trash

Very weird. Read More......

President Bush miffed that Iraqis aren't thanking him enough

I nearly choked on my Wheaties this morning reading the headline: "Bush Said to Be Frustrated by Level of Public Support in Iraq."

Apparently the President met with some leading Iraq and Middle East scholars and informed them that he's "frustrated that the new Iraqi government ? and the Iraqi people ? had not shown greater public support for the American mission." Further, he was reportedly "puzzled" as to how recent anti-American protests could draw so many people.

Everybody knows he's out of touch, but wow. Just . . . wow.

This coming from a man who apparently advocates "constructive chaos" as a policy for an entire region of the world. I'm really running out of ways to be shocked by the incompetence of this administration. The leader of the free world is so clearly out of his depth that it's incredibly difficult for me to imagine his administration doing anything right -- anything at all -- in these difficult times. One despairs.

President Bush also reportedly expressed the view that "the Shia-led government needs to clearly and publicly express the same appreciation for United States efforts and sacrifices as they do in private." So he thinks that when Iraqi leaders thank him in private, they're being honest? And not, y'know, doing the usual diplomatic sucking up? His failure to appropriate plan for the war and its aftermath has ruined their entire country! Yes, many many Iraqis were glad that the U.S. toppled a murderous, despicable regime. But now Iraqi leaders think that they could do far better than the U.S., and it's hard to argue with that assessment. Shia groups especially increasingly view the Coalition presence as an inflammatory and unhelpful presence, and wishing it weren't so isn't helpful.

But is this newfound desire for alternative viewpoints going to make a difference? Will it push the administration towards more reality-based policy? Could there be some hope from a meeting like this? Uh . . .

Mr. Nasr, author of 'The Shia Revival' . . . said he got no sense that the Bush administration was contemplating a shift in its Iraq policy.

I will now stab myself in the eye. Read More......

Open thread

Terror in the skies. Uh huh. What's the latest? Read More......

A detailed look at GOP Senator George Allen's race problem

From the New Republic we learn of Republican Senator George Allen's love of the confederacy:

Campaigning for governor in 1993, he admitted to prominently displaying a Confederate flag in his living room. He said it was part of a flag collection--and had been removed at the start of his gubernatorial bid. When it was learned that he kept a noose hanging on a ficus tree in his law office, he said it was part of a Western memorabilia collection. These explanations may be sincere. But, as a chief executive, he also compiled a controversial record on race. In 1994, he said he would accept an honorary membership at a Richmond social club with a well-known history of discrimination--an invitation that the three previous governors had refused. After an outcry, Allen rejected the offer. He replaced the only black member of the University of Virginia (UVA) Board of Visitors with a white one. He issued a proclamation drafted by the Sons of Confederate Veterans declaring April Confederate History and Heritage Month. The text celebrated Dixie's "four-year struggle for independence and sovereign rights." There was no mention of slavery. After some of the early flaps, a headline in The Washington Post read, "governor seen leading va. back in time."

We also learn that Republican George Allen wasn't a great fan of Martin Luther King:

In 1984, he was one of 27 House members to vote against a state holiday commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, "Allen said the state shouldn't honor a non-Virginian with his own holiday." He was also bothered by the fact that the proposed holiday would fall on the day set aside in Virginia to honor Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. That same year, he did feel the urge to honor one of Virginia's own. He co-sponsored a resolution expressing "regret and sorrow upon the loss" of William Munford Tuck, a politician who opposed every piece of civil rights legislation while in Congress during the 1950s and 1960s and promised "massive resistance" to the Supreme Court's 1954 decision banning segregation.

It's a bitch when you're a racist when it's cool, but then suddenly twenty years later, it's not so cool anymore, especially when you want to run for president of a lot of states that don't still embrace racism.

Then we find that Allen claims to have been touched by the plight of slavery when he was a kid - only to then find out that this touched youngster was into sporting Confederate flag pins.

I stared closely at Allen's smirk in his photo, weighing whether his old classmates were just out to destroy him. And then I noticed something on his collar. It's hard to make out, but then it becomes obvious. Seventeen-year-old George Allen is wearing a Confederate flag pin.

Still, I wasn't sure I'd ask him about it. And then he says something that changes my mind. As a child, Allen tells me, before he even moved to California, he learned about the painful history of the South when his dad would take the kids on long drives from Chicago to New Orleans and other Southern cities for football bowl games. There was one searing memory from those trips he shares with me. "I remember," Allen says, "driving through--somehow, my father was on some back road in Mississippi one time--and we had Illinois license plates. And it was a time when some of the freedom riders had been killed, and somehow we're on this road. And you see a cross burning way off in the fields. I was young at the time. I just remember the sense of urgency as we were driving through the night, a carload of people with Illinois license plates--that this is not necessarily a safe place to be."

Now the pin seemed even worse. Why would a young man with such a sensitive understanding of Southern racial conflict and no Southern heritage wear a Confederate flag in his formal yearbook photo?

Uh, cuz he's a lying racist? Well in all fairness, he may just pander to racists.

Macaca! Read More......

Dems getting ready to play hard ball with Lieberman?

The Hill reports that some Democrats are actually beginning to understand the potentially dire political consequences of Lieberman's ego:

Democrats are worried that Lieberman may be giving Republicans a golden opportunity to undermine their message.

“I think there’s a lot of concern,” said a senior Democratic aide who has discussed the subject with colleagues. “I think the first step is if the Lieberman thing turns into a side show and hurts our message and ability to take back the Senate, and the White House and the [National Republican Senatorial Committee] manipulate him, there are going to be a lot of unhappy people in our caucus.”

Side show....that's exactly what Lieberman has become. Side show Joe. But his side show is undermining the Democratic messaging. He's putting his self-interest before the interests of the Democratic Party -- and Rove is playing him for the fool that he is.

Joe needs to know that there are consequences for his bad behavior. Read More......

Jon Stewart on GOP Senator George Allen's racist eruption

Read More......

More fall-out from GOP Senator George Allen's use of racist slur against Indian-American

Nice of the Washington Post to, yet again, ignore the fact that Macaca isn't just a genus of monkey - in French it's also a slur for dark-skinned people of North Africa, and George Allen's French-speaking French mother just happened to come from North Africa. No, that's not relevant to the story, but the genus of Macaca in Latin is. Uh huh.

Can you people ever just report the facts and let the public be mature enough to figure things out for themselves? We're big boys, we don't need the Washington Post censoring the news.

From the Wash Post, page 1:

Sanjay Puri, the leader of the nation's largest Indian political action committee and a longtime Allen supporter, said he will lead a delegation of Indian business executives and community leaders to meet with Allen on Wednesday to express dismay.

"The comments are very insensitive. That's what we want to find out: How can we continue working with him?" Puri said. "The senator has had a very good relationship with our community. I was pretty surprised -- you can say shocked."

Mark Potok, director of the intelligence project for the Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Montgomery, Ala., said it was "simply impossible to believe" that Allen did not intend the comments as a racial insult.

"To me, it looks like yet another case of a politician pandering to the worst instincts in an all-white crowd," Potok said.

Even the banner publication of the conservative movement, The National Review, is joining in the Allen-bashing:

Rich Lowry, editor of the conservative National Review, wrote on the magazine's Web site Tuesday that he did not think Allen was "trying to speak a coded racist language." But Lowry said Allen showed he "has a mean streak."

More background here and here. Read More......

Now TSA says X-ray detectors CAN detect shoe bombs, while Homeland Security says it isn't true

Nice. When first asked by AP the other day, no one disputed Homeland Security's study of last year that said X-ray machines at airports were insufficient for detecting explosives, including shoe bombs. Now the Transportation Security Agency is saying balderdash! Of course X-ray machines are good enough to detect shoe bombs! Uh huh. So I guess that means that Homeland Security's studies on how to defend America are worthless. Again, nice.

So which one is it? Are airport X-ray machines worthless for detecting bombs, or is the Homeland Security agency worthless? Read More......

Good morning open thread

Another rainy day in Paris. Read More......

Paula Jones' case could force Cheney, Scooter and Karl to testify in Plame's case

This could be fun:

Cotchett, who took over as trial counsel in Plame's case on Tuesday, said legal precedent for whether Cheney and the others could claim legal immunity in the case comes, in part, from Paula Jones' sexual harassment case against Clinton.

In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court said in a unanimous ruling that neither Clinton "or any other official has an immunity that extends beyond the scope of any action taken in an official capacity."

In order to be dismissed from the case or avoid testifying, Cotchett said, lawyers for Cheney and the other men would have to argue that they were acting on government business if they are found to have leaked Plame's name to the media.

Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of a covert agent.

Sounds like Dick and Karl may be in a bit of a legal conundrum here. Either they testify or they admit that outing an undercover CIA agent was done in their official capacities as members of the Bush White House. If they admit that, doesn't that mean Bush will fire them?

The right-wingers sure loved the Supreme Court decision when it worked against Clinton...

As we noted earlier, the Plame Wilsons also retained CREW as part of their legal team. This sounds like one tough legal team. No wonder Cheney lawyered up. Read More......