Bush bashing: GOP edition

This is fun. They created him. They enabled him. They all hate him now. Read More......

NY Times: Bush wants Rove by his side til the end

Lots of rumors lately about the future of Karl Rove. The NYT maintains he's staying. Bush wants him. That's great. Karl can keep doing for Bush and the GOP what he's done for them for the past two year. It takes a lot of work to get your boss down to a 33% approval rating and to lose both the House and the Senate:

White House officials say President Bush has every intention of keeping Mr. Rove on through the rest of his term. And Mr. Rove’s associates say he intends to stay, with the goal of at least salvaging Mr. Bush’s legacy and, in the process, his own.

But serious questions remain about how much influence Mr. Rove can wield and how high a profile he can assume in Washington after being so closely identified with this year’s Republican losses, not to mention six years of often brutal attacks on the same Democrats in line to control Congress for the remainder of Mr. Bush’s presidency.

Things have not gotten off to a great start since the election. Democrats are taking Mr. Rove’s continued influence at the White House — as well as some of its recent moves, like nominating conservative judges for the federal bench — as a sign that Mr. Bush’s conciliatory pledges of bipartisanship will prove to be fleeting.

Rove's got one way of playing politics. Appease the theocrats and scare the rest of the country. Doesn't work anymore, but he can't change. Read More......

Condi warns Iraqis again. Does anyone in that country ever listen to her?

Something horrible happens in Iraq and Condi makes a perfunctory statement. The American media dutifully covers it. But does anyone in Iraq care what Condi Rice tells them? Seriously, anyone?:

Gunmen in Baghdad killed a prominent Shi'ite Islamist politician on Saturday as Condoleezza Rice appealed to Iraqis not to let sectarianism destroy their country.

In what looked like a sectarian assassination, Ali al-Adhadh of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) was shot dead with his wife as he drove in mainly Sunni west Baghdad, police and SCIRI member Adnan al-Obeidi said.

U.S. Secretary of State Rice said during a visit to Vietnam that Iraqis "have one future and that is a future together. They don't have a future if they try to stay apart."

She just sounds like an out-of-touch lightweight. Wait. That's what she is. It's way too late for Condi to weigh in. But we're probably due for another one of her surprise photo op visits to Iraq. Read More......

One of our regular commenters passed way

For those who knew him, his family member posted this in the comments recently:

To any and all who knew my brother, who used the handle "TWEAK".

He passed Tuesday evening from complications during heart surgery.

I thought those who spoke with him should know. He loved this blog. He recently told me how blogs like this one (his favorite) were going to be the salvation of this country.
I didn't understand what actually took place here until I started reading some of his musings last night. While I don't quite understand the charachter of "Tweak" he created, I can tell you he was a passionate man who cared deeply about the USA and the world.

He thought all of you, no matter your opinions, were the new "shock troops" of freedom.

I thank you for taking the time to read this. I know I can always come here to see his special smile and remember his acerbic wit.

I miss him so much.

Here was Tweak's last comment:

HI GUYS!!!

IT TOOK A WHOLE LOT OF YELLING AND A C-NOTE TO LET ME HAVE MY COMPUTER IN THIS GODFORSAKEN ROOM FOR A FEW MINUTES, BUT I DID IT.

MY TIME IS SHORT, (ON THE COMPUTER-LOL) SO HERE IT GOES....


HALL-A-FUCKING-LOU-YA!

I AM SO GLAD I WAS ABLE TO WITNESS THIS HISTORIC EVENT!
YOU PEOPLE ROCK! A-BLOG ROCKS!
JOHN A. YOU ROCK TOO.
HELL, EVEN YOU ROCK TODAY "BUSBOY', YOU FLAMING PILE OF REPUBLICAN TURDS YOU!

NO ONE, NOT EVEN A PERSONAL HOSPITAL VISIT BY KATHLEEN HARRIS CAN BRING ME DOWN FROM THIS NATURAL HIGH!

REMEMBER PEOPLE, THAT WAS A HELL OF A POLITICAL BATTLE.
OUR WEAPONS, (TRUTH AND JUSTICE) HAVE BEEN TESTED, HONED AND ARE READY FOR THE REAL REVOLUTION OF 08'

GAWD, I HOPE I GET TO SEE THE FINAL NAILS PIERCE THE REPUBLICAN COFFIN.
THAT WOULD BE AKIN TO LETTING ME EAT THE PROVERBIAL CAKE, AFTER HAVING BAKED AND FROSTED IT MYSELF.

ODDLY ENOUGH, LIFE HAS BEEN VERY GOOD TO ME AND I HOPE THE POWERS THAT BE LET ME SEE THIS ONE THROUGH TO THE 08' FINISH...
IF NOT IT'S OKAY. I ALREADY KNOW WE WILL WIN.

FIGHT ON ABLOG WARIORS! FIGHT ON!
IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER.

I LOVE ALL OF YOU.
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TWEAK | 11.08.06 - 3:17 pm

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Another open thread

Just going through old photos. Amazing how many of them you forget, then remember. Like this one. I snapped it in Berlin, November of 1989. It was literally only a couple of days after the wall came down (at least metaphorically - the wall was still up and things were oddly joyous and tense as everyone rushed to the wall to knock chunks out of it and tease/chat up the East German guards who were intrigued, amused or disturbed depending on the guard). Read More......

Republicans hate our system of government

Republicans hate the basic underpinnings of that which makes us America. They don't believe in the Constitution. They don't believe in the Bill of Rights. They don't believe in courts of law. They don't believe in anything, accept anything as law in our country, other than the Bible and their will. They are a party of extremist bullies who simply do not believe in America. Read More......

Open thread

Off to get a haircut. Read More......

Everything you wanted to know about tasers

Nasty, and interesting, article. Read More......

Another $127 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan

This is ridiculous. Two-thirds of the "war on terror" money we've spent to date has gone to Iraq - meaning, it was wasted, and not on the war on terror.

The Bush administration is preparing its largest spending request yet for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a proposal that could make the conflict the most expensive since World War II.

The Pentagon is considering $127 billion to $160 billion in requests from the armed services for the 2007 fiscal year, which began last month, several lawmakers and congressional staff members said. That's on top of $70 billion already approved for 2007.

Since 2001, Congress has approved $502 billion for the war on terror, roughly two-thirds for Iraq. The latest request, due to reach the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress next spring, would make the war on terror more expensive than the Vietnam War.

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Latinos quit the GOP in 2006

The GOP decided to make immigrant bashing one of the top priorities in 2006. They paid at the polls:

Pollsters generally agree that the same voters abandoned the president's party in droves during last week's elections, with Latinos giving the GOP only 30 percent of their vote as strident House immigration legislation inspired by Republicans and tough-talking campaign ads by conservative candidates roiled the community. It was a 10-point drop from the lowest estimated Latino vote percentage two years ago, and a 14-point drop from the highest.

And, you know, the Republicans can't help themselves. They'll keep up the anti-latino agenda. Fine, they'll keep losing elections. Read More......

GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell: Give us our right wing theocratic judges or we'll filibuster

The GOP still wants to stack the federal bench with theocratic, extremist judges. Mitch McConnell sounded like he was making a filibuster threat against the Democrats. But wait, is McConnell really saying that the GOP Senators will filibuster and slow down the Senate to get their way? Didn't they just rail against those tactics when the Democrats used them?:

The Senate's next Republican leader issued a veiled threat to block action on legislation if Democrats refuse to allow confirmation votes on President Bush's troubled judicial nominations.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who will become minority leader Jan. 4, told the conservative Federalist Society Friday not to feel bad about the Senate election results because Republicans will hold 49 seats in a body that requires 60 votes to end a filibuster and bring legislation or presidential nominees to a final vote.

If the "Democrats want our cooperation, they'll give the president's judicial nominees an up-or-down vote," McConnell said.

Vice President Dick Cheney told the same group Friday that Republicans' loss of Congress in last week's election won't dissuade Bush from continuing to nominate strict-constructionist judges to the federal bench.

The GOP doesn't control the Senate. Now, they're in the minority. Watch them use the same filibuster that just months ago they were castigating. Such hypocrites.

UPDATE: Think Progress has the goods on McConnell advocating the nuclear option back in March of 2005. That was during an interview with Fox News where McConnell was also defending the GOP's intervention in the Terri Schiavo case. Read More......

Saturday Morning Open Thread

It's the weekend. And, it's almost Thanksgiving. How did that happen?

Starting slow today. Read More......

The Poodle admits Iraq "pretty much a disaster"

Oh Tony, so independent for a little poodle. Or was it just a bit of a Bush-like blunder that rubbed off after six years?

Tony Blair conceded last night that western intervention in Iraq had been a disaster. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, the Arabic TV station, the prime minister agreed with the veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost when he suggested that intervention had "so far been pretty much of a disaster".

Mr Blair said: "It has, but you see, what I say to people is, 'why is it difficult in Iraq?' It's not difficult because of some accident in planning, it's difficult because there's a deliberate strategy - al-Qaida with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other - to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war."

Downing Street tried to downplay the apparent slip. "I think that's just the way in which he answers questions," said a spokesman. "His views on Iraq are documented in hundreds of places, and that is not one of them."

Mr Blair's remarks came hours after his trade and industry minister, Margaret Hodge, was reported to have described Iraq as his "big mistake in foreign affairs" and criticised his "moral imperialism".

Oh dear, a "what he meant to say" follow up by the media spin masters and then dissention in the ranks. Read More......

Bush gets shunned by South Korea

He just can't catch a break these days, can he? Poor George. He pissed off the American public and the world and now everyone is finally standing up to the childish bully. Maybe nuance would have made a bit more sense, huh? After seeing the results of the war in Iraq, who in their right mind wants to participate in Bush's gun slinging attempts at foreign policy?

Bush sought to persuade South Korea's leader to fully implement U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea for testing nuclear weapons. He also sought Roh's support in the Proliferation Security Initiative, a voluntary international program that calls for stopping ships suspected of trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.

Roh said his country "is not taking part in the full scope" of the security initiative, but that it would "support the principles and goals of the PSI," and would cooperate in preventing the transfer of materiel for weapons of mass destruction in northeast Asia.

Don't worry George, I'm sure you will get a pleasant welcome when you get home. Lots to talk about with the new Congress. Read More......

US 3rd Division returning to Iraq for third tour

Sounds like the Army isn't over-stretched at all. So much for a few years gap between deployments. Read More......