Bush's Ratings on Iraq/National Security are Tanking

The Washington Post piece on their latest poll is a MUST READ. Bush's numbers on Iraq are just plain collapsing:

For the first time since the war in Iraq began, more than half of the American public believes the fight there has not made the United States safer, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll....Nearly three-quarters of Americans say the number of casualties in Iraq is unacceptable, while two-thirds say the U.S. military there is bogged down and nearly six in 10 say the war was not worth fighting -- in all three cases matching or exceeding the highest levels of pessimism yet recorded. More than four in 10 believe the U.S. presence in Iraq is becoming analogous to the experience in Vietnam.

The American people just aren't buying all the happy talk coming from Bush and Cheney. And they are being to realize they've been had:

Perhaps most ominous for President Bush, 52 percent said war in Iraq has not contributed to the long-term security of the United States, while 47 percent said it has. It was the first time a majority of Americans disagreed with the central notion Bush has offered to build support for war: that the fight there will make Americans safer from terrorists at home.

The Post poll found that Bush is even losing serious ground on his strongest issue -- terrorism:

By 50 percent to 49 percent, Americans approved of the way Bush is handling the campaign against terrorism, down from 56 percent approval in April, equaling the lowest rating he has earned on the issue that has consistently been his core strength with the public....The drop in Bush's approval ratings on fighting terrorism came disproportionately from political independents. In March, 63 percent of independents approved of Bush's job combating terrorism. By April this had fallen to 54 percent. And in this weekend's survey, 40 percent gave him good marks.

His lies --and the daily carnage in Iraq -- are finally catching up with him. With all this bad news, we'll probably be at Code Orange very soon. Read More......

Sean Hannity gets beaten up by a girl

Rosie beats up Hannity on the View. Starts to get good about halfway through.

I think I heard Rosie says "I love him" about John McCain. Someone needs to brief her, and lots of other Dems and moderates, that John McCain seems like a very nice man. But he's been pretty bad on gay issues up until recently (he did publicly object to the gay-bashing constitutional amendment, and he gets kudos for that).

Then Rosie says Bush should be tried as a war criminal :-)

Then Hannity downplays Abu Ghraib - "there was underwear on the head of one of them."

Then Rosie calls him delusions - actually she sings it.

Then the GOP Stepford Wife chimes in about how this show wouldn't exist if George Bush didn't invade Iraq, or something you'd expect from a football player's wife (ooh, did I say that?)

And finally, Meredith doesn't look like she can stand him. Read More......

Open thread

I like this photo. Read More......

Tell Bill Richardson to go Cheney himself. Yes, another disloyal Dem attacks Dean

This is why the grassroots, the real Democrats, the real people have no use for far too many of the current crop of losers running the party. Bill Richardson can go Cheney himself. Howard Dean speaks for a hell of a lot more Democrats than Richardson speaks for. This is getting the air of a coordinated attack on Dean. You just don't have this many high-level Dems criticizing the party leader this early in the game. And let's not forget that it was the grassroots - people like us - who pushed for Dean, wanted Dean to get the DNC chair, and ultimately helped him get it. This is an attack on us as well. The tired old scared Democrats are afraid that we're going to take over their pitiful excuse for a party. And they're right, we are. Read More......

Bush limits privacy protections under US law

Because big business told him to. I'm sorry, I meant Jesus told him to. This is a brilliant issue for the Dems to jump on. Doing this WITHIN 24 HOURS OF CITIGROUP LOSING 3.9M CUSTOMER RECORDS. Make my day. Read More......

Noah had dinosaurs on the ark

Not clear whether he had those cool metalic shock cages for the velociraptors, or whether bamboo was sufficient.

Please God, let their children compete against our children for jobs.

From "Dinosaurs and the Bible":

The story we have all heard from movies, television, newspapers, and most magazines and textbooks is that dinosaurs lived millions of year ago. According to evolutionists, the dinosaurs 'ruled the Earth' for 140 million years, dying out about 65 million years ago. However, scientists do not dig up anything labeled with those ages. They only uncover dead dinosaurs (i.e., their bones), and their bones do not have labels attached telling how old they are. The idea of millions of years of evolution is just the evolutionists' story about the past. No scientist was there to see the dinosaurs live through this supposed dinosaur age. In fact, there is no proof whatsoever that the world and its fossil layers are millions of years old. No scientist observed dinosaurs die. Scientists only find the bones in the here and now, and because many of them are evolutionists, they try to fit the story of the dinosaurs into their view....

As you add up all of the dates, and accepting that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to Earth almost 2000 years ago, we come to the conclusion that the creation of the Earth and animals (including the dinosaurs) occurred only thousands of years ago (perhaps only 6000!), not millions of years. Thus, if the Bible is right (and it is!), dinosaurs must have lived within the past thousands of years....

Evolutionists declare that no man ever lived alongside dinosaurs. The Bible, however, makes it plain that dinosaurs and people must have lived together. Actually, as we will soon see, there is a lot of evidence for this....

Some people think that dinosaurs were too big, or there were too many of them, to go on this Ark. However, there were not very many different kinds of dinosaurs. There are certainly hundreds of dinosaur names, but many of these were given to just a bit of bone or skeletons of the same dinosaur found in other countries. It is also reasonable to assume that different sizes, varieties, and sexes of the same kind of dinosaur have ended up with different names. For example, look at the many different varieties and sizes of dogs, but they are all the same kind-the dog kind! In reality, there may have been fewer than 50 kinds of dinosaurs.

God sent two of every (seven of some) land animal into the Ark (Genesis 7:2-3; 7:8-9)—there were no exceptions. Therefore, dinosaurs must have been on the Ark. Even though there was ample room in the huge ship for large animals, perhaps God sent young adults into the Ark that still had plenty of room for them to grow....

Contrary to what many may think, what we know now as dinosaurs get more mention in the Scriptures than most animals! So dinosaurs—all the different kinds—must have lived alongside of people after the Flood....

If you remove the evolutionary framework, get rid of the millions of years, and then take the Bible seriously, you will find an explanation that fits the facts and makes perfect sense:

At the time of the Flood, many of the sea creatures died, but some survived. In addition, all of the land creatures outside the Ark died, but the representatives of all the kinds that survived on the Ark lived in the new world after the Flood. Those land animals (including dinosaurs) found the new world to be much different than the one before the Flood. Due to (1) competition for food that was no longer in abundance, (2) other catastrophes, (3) man killing for food (and perhaps for fun), and (4) the destruction of habitats, etc., many species of animals eventually died out. The group of animals we now call dinosaurs just happened to die out too. In fact, quite a number of animals be come extinct each year. Extinction seems to be the rule in Earth history (not the formation of new types of animals as you would expect from evolution).

Like he said. Read More......

Howard Dean sure to be chastized again for stating the obvious

SF Chronicle:

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, unapologetic in the face of recent criticism that he has been too tough on his political opposition, said in San Francisco this week that Republicans are "a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party."

"The Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people," Dean said Monday, ...

And he's right. As DKos reminds us, no white Christian men there...



And no white Christian men here either... Read More......

Oh my God

From AP:

On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres. Then they let him into the United States.

The following day, a gruesome scene was discovered in Despres' hometown of Minto, New Brunswick: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician named Frederick Fulton was found on Fulton's kitchen floor. His head was in a pillowcase under a kitchen table. His common-law wife was discovered stabbed to death in a bedroom....

At a time when the United States is tightening its borders, how could a man toting what appeared to be a bloody chain saw be allowed into the country?

Read More......

Anne Bancroft dies at 73

Not sure why I care, but I do. I've always loved her. Smart, sassy woman. A very nice obit from AP (I had no idea she was married to Mel Brooks). Read More......

Ohio Scandal Grows by $215 million.

Man, those GOP leaders in Ohio are reckless. Now they've lost $215 million from the Worker's Comp. Fund by investing in another "high-risk" investment. The scandal just keeps growing and growing....and the Toledo Blade is staying right on top of it.

Can someone remind me why anyone thinks the GOP is better on fiscal issues? Read More......

What a bunch of anti-Muslim bigots

I'm serious. This kind of stuff (detailed below) just pisses me off. Read what I've written below, then please consider doing the following two things:

1. Order a free Koran via CAIR's Web site ONLY IF you really want to read it (otherwise don't waste their money), I did order it because I'd like to, especially now that the radical right bigots are sounding off.

2. Donate to the free Koran campaign, $25 helps them put a Koran in front of someone else and just THINK how much that will tick off the religious right hate groups :-) You might want to make your donation one cent over - meaning, $10.01 or $25.01, so they can get a sense of how many folks donate via the site (might be fun to know). I just gave, I think this is a great cause, hope some of you will too.

Ok, now here's the story that really pissed me off about this....

ABC News did a wonderful news report last week about one of the lead Muslim-America groups, CAIR, sending out copies of the Koran for free to anyone who wanted one, so Americans could read the book for themselves and make up their own minds. (You can also read about it here on USA Today.) It sounds like a wonderful idea - oh, hell, it IS a wonderful idea. Well, guess who has their knickers in a knot over it? Yes, your friendly neighborhood conservative Christian hate group.

In the same way these bigots slur gays, they're now routinely going after Muslim-Americans. To wit, today's article from the American Family Association's AgapePress, a propaganda organ that's taken swipes at Muslims many times before:

Normal Mulsim-American groups are now "radical" - gee, sound familiar?

A Christian evangelist and former Muslim says she is not concerned about the news that a radical Islamic group is offering free Korans to anyone who wants one. USA Today recently reported that the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, plans to distribute as many as 25,000 Korans this week.

Then there's the old, take a few sentences out of context and demean the entire movement and community:

Cati contends, a reading of just a few key verses would likely scare off most rational readers. "All they've got to do is read suras like 'Take not Jews and Christians as your friends,'" she suggests, or "Sura 47:4, that says, 'When you meet the unbelievers, smite at their neck and make a great slaughter of them.'"

According to the evangelical ministry leader, the Koran instructs followers of Islam that if they encounter any nonbelievers, a good Muslim may "strike their necks." And, she notes, the Islamic faithful are instructed, "If you take them as captive, you may ransom them until the war ends."

Then just more crap:

Cati says while the inspired words of the Holy Bible are meant to move hearers to repent and seek salvation, the Koran encourages Muslims to use aggressive means, even violence if necessary, to compel others to become followers. "The majority of those who converted to Islam were converted by force -- not by free will," she asserts, "not because they loved what they were doing, but because they were commanded to [convert]. It was either death, pay taxes, or whatever."

The Muslim-American community better wake up and smell the coffee. The religious hates your guts and your next in their grand conquest of the country. They've already set their targets on the homos, and now it's the A-rabs. The blacks and the Latinos and then the Jews won't be far behind, but they won't tell you guys that until it's too late. The Muslim-American community needs friends, and they ought to be looking for them in the gay community since we now have the same enemy. And it might just help get rid of some stereotypes on both sides of the fence.

We've all said it before and I'll say it. The problem isn't Jesus or Mohammed. It's some of their followers. Read More......

More on Bush's upcoming dinner with the PORN STAR

Is that Osama in your pocket, or...

Read More......

VIDEO: Our own Michael in NYC representing AMERICAblog on MSNBC

Courtesy of The Political Teen.

Crooks and Liars has it up now as well. Read More......

The Washington Post's internalized homophobia

I've been thinking some more about the Washington Post's story today about anti-gay GOP Maryland Governor Ehrlich, and his openly-gay chief of staff Steve Kreseksi stepping down, and now I'm getting a little ticked.

The Post story totally ignored the pink elephant in the room, namely that numerous Web sites, incuding mine, have publicly excoriated Ehrlich and Kreseski for their political relationship at a time that the governor decides to he needs to prove his anti-gay bona fides. Somehow, totally unconnected (but of course), Kreseski decides to suddenly quit and we're to believe that this had nothing, NOTHING, to do with the public criticism of both of them, and the clear desire of Ehrlich of late to suck up to the religious right.

Now, the Post editors might argue that they had no proof that Kreseski resigned because of the gay controversy. True enough. But that's not their job, to PROVE their stories (otherwise, they'd never report anything the Bush administration ever says lest the Bushies not PROVE it first). Their job is to report the news. And in this case, the news is clearly that Ehrlich's openly-gay - and let me remind the Post again, OPENLY GAY - chief of staff resigned immediately following public criticism of him and his boss over gay issues, at a time that his boss is sucking up to the religious right - over? - GAY ISSUES.

The correct article to write is one in which you note that Kreseki is leaving, you note that it following public criticism of him and the governor because Kreseski is openly gay and the governor has now decided to go anti-gay, and you then let Kreseki and the governor answer on-the-record for the article whether the two are related.

What you don't do is what the Post did. Namely, you don't pretend that Kreseski being openly gay is akin to him being accused of having syphillis or murdering small children. And you don't treat gay issues like they're state secrets, especially when one party to the story is a governor who just went anti-gay, and when the other guy in the story is openly-gay and has been openly-gay for over 15 years that I've known him. That's just absurd. They made gay the issue, not us. They can't hide now behind a "gay" smokescreen, just because the issue no longer suits their political needs.

In an effort to be "pro-gay," the Post in effect made a decision that was quite anti-gay. They're refusing to report the real story here, under a likely smokescreen of "well, we can't PROVE the connection," when the point of journalism isn't to prove the connection, it's to report the relevant facts, mam, and let the public decide for themselves. Clearly the gay controversy was relevant to this story. The Post did itself and its readers a disservice by creating a closet where none was needed or deserved. Read More......

Open thread

Having dinner with any porn stars? Read More......

President Bush dines with Porn Star next week (for real)

And WingNutDaily is not a happy camper:

I want you to imagine the squeals of outrage we would have heard if, back in the 1990s, President Clinton spoke to a Democratic congressional fund-raising dinner attended by a porn star and a pornographer.

But the "family values" Republicans are mute about just such an event scheduled for next week – involving not Clinton, but President Bush.

WARNING, THE LINK BELOW IS SO NOT WORK FRIENDLY, I'M NOT KIDDING.

Don't forget to visit the Web site of Bush's dinner date, Mary Carey, where you can see a snippet of her new movie "Lezzie 3 Way w/ Beautiful Nikki" (I am SO not kidding.) She has a personal meeting scheduled with Karl Rove too!

Read More......

Michael in NYC to be on MSNBC today representing AMERICAblog

He'll be talking about Blair's visit to the US this week, sometime during the 5pm Eastern hour. Read More......

Texas GOP governor tells gays to leave the state

(Oops, fixed the link.)

Little bit of an ethnic cleansing fan, are we Governor Perry? And people say the south is backward. Read More......

The Downing Street Memo story won't die

Nor should it. Read More......

Concerned Women for America's house bigot blames gays for skyrocketing housing costs

Alan Greenspan is gay? Read More......

Openly gay chief of staff to anti-gay Gov. Ehrlich (R-MD) resigns

The Wash Post article doesn't get into the gay controversy, which could very easily be the reason Kreseski left. I've heard rumors suggesting there may be more to his leaving than just an already planned resignation. Ehrlich was facing a lot of criticism for having an openly gay chief of staff and vetoing the recent gay rights bill. Of course, then there's the new guy he just picked to succeed Kreseki as chief of staff. I wonder how Ehrlich's religious right buddies feel about him. Read More......

Latest Poll: Bush ignoring real issues

Looks like Americans are finally starting to clue in a bit according to the just released numbers from Washington Post/ABC News:

A clear majority of Americans say President Bush is ignoring the public's concerns and instead has become distracted by issues that most people say they care little about, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey found that 58 percent of those interviewed said Bush is mainly concentrating in his second term on problems and partisan squabbles that these respondents said were unimportant to them. Four in 10--41 percent--said the president was focused on important problems--a double-digit drop from three years ago.

Key finding is that his numbers are tanking with Independents, too: 68% disagree with Bush's priorities:

That suggests Bush's mixed record in the second term on issues the public views as critical--particularly on Iraq and the economy--may be as much a liability for GOP candidates in next year's mid-term election as his performance in his first term was an asset to Republican congressional hopefuls last year and in 2002.

Carpe Diem Democrats. Read More......

Open thread

Off to lunch Read More......

They're after your children

Watch this video (scroll down to a long column of red video links, click on "Scared Straight"). Then read this story. Read More......

Bush No Aid To Fight Against AIDS

The NYT's Kristof urged Bush to act in Darfur. Now the Washington Post also weighs in on Bush and Africa, calling for him to dig deeper to fight the intractable poverty and debt that has held back that continent. (As it points out, even a $6 billion effort would still keep the US far behind its allies in giving as a percentage of GDP.

But the Washington Post makes a curious statement in its lead editorial:

The Bush administration already has done a lot for developing countries. Its global AIDS initiative has transformed the money available to fight the pandemic....

Unless they know something we don't know, this is completely untrue. Are they just stupidly remembering that Bush mad a dramatic pledge of $15 billion and forgetting how Bush perverted that goal for political purposes and hasn't even come close to matching his words with deeds?

Yes, Bush has transformed the money available to fight the pandemic -- by making it less available. He's defunded programs already in place that work and can save lives. He's politicized other funding by refusing to make any money available to any group that wants to take step one in fighting AIDS -- making condoms available. Even if the money the US gives goes solely to fighting AIDS, he refuses to have anything to do with any group that might somewhere at sometime be involved in abortion. And Bush callously insists our money -- if and when it is ever available -- buy only namebrand drugs, even though they're three times more expensive than generics. (In other words, the same amount of money could save three times as many lives, but Bush would rather cater to multinational drug companies thatn focus on saving lives.)

How could the Washington Post be so ill-informed? Bush broke his promise to increase the fight against AIDS in Africa and his actions have actually SLOWED DOWN that fight. The last the MSM bothered to report on it, Bush hadn't even come close to meeting even the simple dollar figures he'd thrown out. Hopefully, some group will call the Post on its misleading representation of Bush's indefensible action in this pandemic. Read More......

Bush's Culture Of Life? Not In Africa

The NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof chides Bush on Darfur -- pointing out how even the tiniest gestures by Bush, how even minimal troops from the African Union, have saved tens of thousands of lives. The money quote:

Mr. Bush values a frozen embryo. But he hasn't mustered much compassion for an entire population of terrorized widows and orphans. And he is cementing in place the very hopelessness he dreads, by continuing to avert his eyes from the first genocide of the 21st century.

Now thankfully the International Criminal Court will be investigating the claims of mass murder and widespread rape in Darfur -- one of the very tasks the UN is ideally suited for. Bush of course hates the ICC and would normally block its involvement. But even he had to concede this international body was the only one that made sense to take the lead on this case.

But not blocking something is about as far as Bush will go to "help" Africa. He's rewarding his closest ally Tony Blair by spurning any attempt to join the rest of the world on increasing aid to other countries to match the generosity of other nations or tackling the growing crisis of climate change. Yep, Blair just admitted there's no point in talking to Bush about these issues. Thanks, George, for trashing my legacy and showing that - with you -- loyalty is a one-way street. Read More......

Open Thread

Start the chat, please.... Read More......

Iraq insurgency clearly in final minutes of existence

Somehow, who knows how since they are just about finished, launched four bomb attacks across Iraq today killing at least 18 and wounding at least 39 people. Thankfully Bush and Cheney have clarified the situation and have informed the public that we are winning. Black is white and white is black. Read More......

German public health "experts" paid by tobacco companies

Nothing surprises me when it comes to the tobacco industry and looking at how doctors have been cashing in from pharmaceuticals (that have mixed results, no less) this story should not be much of a surprise either. It's nice to see that people everywhere can benefit from the words of wisdom from experts like this.

The claims were published yesterday by the weekly magazine Der Spiegel, which said four of the country's top medical research scientists had received millions of Deutschmarks for publishing biased reports about smoking during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Professor von Troschke was said to have received more than DM700,000 for publishing his research, which included a report entitled the "psycho-sociological uses of smoking" in which he dismissed claims that smoking was addictive.

Der Spiegel described him as an active opponent of discrimination against smokers who used a caricature of a smoker with a "sort of Jewish star" pinned on his breast to illustrate the "pogrom-mentality" of the anti-smoking lobby.

The only Nazi connection I see is the aspect of corruption that dominated back then. Welcome to the club, professor. Read More......