Europeans ecstatic that Gore wins Nobel

Gore's "a lifeline to sanity." I love it.

"He's the evidence that America is still capable of intelligent discourse," said Peter Kellner, who heads the British polling firm YouGov. According to Kellner, opinion polls show that British people generally admire America and Americans but strongly dislike Bush. He also said surveys routinely find that more than 80 percent of Britons agree with Gore that climate change exists and is man-made.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called Gore "inspirational," and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he hoped Gore's honor would encourage world leaders to "approach this challenge even more swiftly and decisively."

John Noach, 69, a Dutch citizen who was sitting in a London Starbucks on Friday, said that in Europe, "most reasonable people" think of Gore as "a lifeline to sanity."

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Dr. Laura's soldier-son in trouble for lurid sex/violence site

Sounds like a biological error to me. Read the rest of this post...

Intelligence analysts confirm that Israel attacked Syrian nuke plant

Can't say I blame 'em. Read the rest of this post...

What happens when a real reporter asks a real question at the White House

Then again, we live in a country that spies illegally on its own citizens, that tortures people who haven't even been accused of a crime, so it surprises us that our leaders don't believe we should have a free media, and most of the media agrees with them? Read the rest of this post...

My thoughts regarding General Sanchez

I'm quite pleased that General Ricardo Sanchez finally came out and called Iraq what it is - a "nightmare" for the United States.

I especially liked his catchy statement - “I think once you are retired, you have a responsibility to the nation, to your oath, to the country, to state your opinion.”

I mean that with no disrespect and I couldn't agree more.

I'm sure we all remember the controversy surrounding the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. General Sanchez took a lot of heat for that atrocity being that he was in charge of all ground forces in Iraq during that time.

General Sanchez maybe a little late with his voice of opposition to the war. However, every little bit helps, especially when it comes from one of the commanders on the ground.

I applaud his efforts to shed some new light on Bush's disastrous Iraq policy.

It's never too late for former insiders like General Sanchez to speak out. We need a lot more of this type of activity considering the reality of the situation in Iraq.

Since our invasion Iraq has fell into a multi-front civil war. Sunni vs Shia, Shia vs Shia, an insurgency, and multiple terrorist organizations all fighting each other for control.

Unfortunately we armed most of our enemies who are using the very weapons we provided them to kill our troops. Now it has gotten to the point where we are working with militias, both Sunni and Shia, who have American blood on their hands just to make it appear as if progress is being made.

I'm positive that General Sanchez' disillusionment started when the US Government made the decision to let Sadr off the hook. Sanchez really wanted revenge for Sadr killing a substantial number of our troops in the spring and summer of 2004.

Instead, Sadr became a major influential player when his loyalists went on to control 30 Parliament seats in the new Iraqi government that is endorsed as an ally by George W. Bush - just a totally UNFORGIVABLE hypocrisy.

Is this what our troops continue to fight and die for in Iraq?


Sadr made Maliki - and I'll bet that really pisses Sanchez off big time (and rightfully so).


It think this has the potential to relight the flame of Abu Ghraib and the Sadr uprising of 2004 with some new unheard information from General Sanchez.

I know I'll be on standby waiting to hear it.

John Bruhns
Iraq Veteran

PS. For the sake of clarity - This blog post is meant to point out that while Bush tells America it's necessary to fight terrorists in Iraq he is befriending those same so called "terrorists" who are killing our troops. At the same time I fully acknowledge that the people we are fighting in Iraq, for the most part, and from my personal experience, are attacking us because we continue to occupy their land. This is not meant to defend General Sanchez, but to express my interest in what he has to reveal about his "behind the scenes" experiences and his conflicting views with the Bush Administration's handling of the war in Iraq. Read the rest of this post...

Why don't we just vote on a trans-only ENDA in 2 weeks?

Seriously. If the "trans-ENDA or die" crowd thinks we're lying about them not having the votes. If they think we wouldn't "sacrifice" ourselves to see their bill pass the same way we've "sacrificed" them to see ours pass. If they think that losing badly in a floor vote does not prejudice your chances to bring a bill up again for years to come. Then here's my proposal: We'll give you our slot in the coming weeks, try to pass your own trans-ONLY ENDA (i.e., an ENDA that only covers trans people and does not cover G, L or B). We keep hearing that America, and Congress, accepts transgendered people as much as they accept gay people. That congress would easily vote for a transgender rights bill. Fine, then do it. Let's have Pelosi and Frank put our GLB ENDA aside and bring up for a committee and floor vote a trans-only ENDA. And if it passes, I'll be the first one cheering. But if you lose and it sets your movement back a decade, so be it. We're all adults here. You guys think you know better than the people who have been working in Washington for decades. Well here's your chance to prove it, without making the rest of us collateral damage. Read the rest of this post...

Ex-general: Iraq is a "nightmare" for US

AP

The U.S. mission in Iraq is a "nightmare with no end in sight" because of political misjudgments after the fall of Saddam Hussein that continue today, a former chief of U.S.-led forces said Friday.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded coalition troops for a year beginning June 2003, cast a wide net of blame for both political and military shortcomings in Iraq that helped open the way for the insurgency — such as disbanding the Saddam-era military and failing to cement ties with tribal leaders and quickly establish civilian government after Saddam was toppled.

He called current strategies — including the deployment of 30,000 additional forces earlier this year — a "desperate attempt" to make up for years of misguided policies in Iraq.

"There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight," Sanchez told a group of journalists covering military affairs.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Check out this week's poem. There are excerpts from Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself." The first line "I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself...."

There's a lot of news for a weekend....but celebrate yourself, too. Read the rest of this post...

Bush administration must love CNN

What bold coverage from CNN, who must have run out of "Mrs. Smith's cat 'Mittens' rescued from tree, live from Elwood City" stories. Sounds like there's nothing to report about Iraq or Afghanistan because it's all going so well. With the US economy booming, hell, what else can they run as the headline story other than a ticket scandal for some bubblegum performer? Brought to you by the proud sponsors of the why America must defend itself and invade Iraq, how we're winning the war in Iraq, why the surge is working despite Democrats that hate America, why we need to nuke Iran and why global warming is a fraud. Where would America be without CNN? Read the rest of this post...

Afghanistan "is going down fast"

From The Australian:

THE bloodshed in Afghanistan has reached levels not seen since the 2001 invasion as anger at bungling by an ineffective Government in Kabul and its foreign backers stokes support for the Taliban and other extremist groups.

The death of Trooper David Pearce underlines the rising dangers for Australia's 1000 soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them deployed in the Taliban's southern heartland -- a region some of Canberra's NATO allies consider too dangerous to fight in.

"This place can only go up or down, and it's going down fast, which is something the international community simply will not understand," said a security analyst who has been working in and out of Afghanistan for 30 years.

Almost six years after the hardline Islamist Taliban were ousted, their insurgency is gaining strength, fuelled by resentment at NATO bombing of civilians, billions of dollars of wasted aid, a lack of jobs and record crops of opium, the raw material for heroin.

The fighting is spreading to places once relatively safe, including the capital and the western and northern parts of the country.

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More press reactions on Gore and the Nobel Peace Prize

The Independent: The Green Giant and An Oscar. The Nobel Peace Prize. Now, can Al Gore win the presidency?
Guardian:
Al Gore wins Nobel peace prize. And this time, no one can take it away from him
Times of London: Al Gore’s Nobel peace prize is a rebuke for the President, claim Democrats
Le Figaro: La croisade verte d'Al Gore, prix Nobel de la paix

And an interesting comparison between the the paths of Bush and Gore since 2000 from the Post. What a different country and better place the US would have been with a Gore administration. The Republicans are so full of sour grapes, obviously touchy about the massive failures and lies that will define the GOP for years to come. Gore was so right about so many things and that's something the GOP or the Supreme Court can never take away.

What other good articles is everyone seeing out there from around the world? Read the rest of this post...