Bush's newest reason for the Iraq war

Bush is now arguing that if we don't keep fighting in Iraq, no matter how lost the cause, somehow that will lead terrorists to attack America on US soil.

How?

Not so clear.

Yesterday, Froomkin dissected the argument but in a nutshell, Iraq has turned into a civil war. A disaster to be sure. And America will have egg on its face having opened up this can of worms and then utterly lost the battle. That's embarrassing, and it doesn't help us get things done in the world. But how losing a civil war in Iraq somehow brings more terrorists to American soil, well that isn't quite clear.

And in any case, any child can tell you that if you catch a terminal illness it'll kill you. But Doctor Bush seems to want us to believe that he can beat the terminal illness by simply telling us what will happen if we DON'T beat the terminal illness. But it doesn't work that way. Yes, you're screwed if you get a terminal illness. But repeating that fact over and over again won't stop you from getting it, it won't help you cure it, nor will it stop you from dying as a result.

Iraq is terminal, it's a lost cause. Nothing we do or say will change the fact that we tried and we lost. Bush isn't telling us what will happen if we "cut and run" from Iraq. He's telling us what will happen no matter what we do. Such is the unfortunate diagnosis with terminal illnesses. Read the rest of this post...

We've got no Intel on Iran, Part II, the GOP wants war

The New York Times takes a different read on the Iran intelligence issue than the Reuters article cited below. The Times is focused on the fact that top Republicans aren't happy with the lack of intel about Iran because, it seems, those officials want to build the case for action against Iran:

Some senior Bush administration officials and top Republican lawmakers are voicing anger that American spy agencies have not issued more ominous warnings about the threats that they say Iran presents to the United States.

Some policy makers have accused intelligence agencies of playing down Iran’s role in Hezbollah’s recent attacks against Israel and overestimating the time it would take for Iran to build a nuclear weapon.

The complaints, expressed privately in recent weeks, surfaced in a Congressional report about Iran released Wednesday. They echo the tensions that divided the administration and the Central Intelligence Agency during the prelude to the war in Iraq.

The criticisms reflect the views of some officials inside the White House and the Pentagon who advocated going to war with Iraq and now are pressing for confronting Iran directly over its nuclear program and ties to terrorism, say officials with knowledge of the debate.

We've been down this path before. Bush, the neo-cons and the GOP want the intelligence to match their agenda. They're not happy that they're not getting it.

The Bush team is really starting to beat the drums for war again. While most Americans are worried about getting out of the quagmire in Iraq, Bush is getting ready for his next war -- without intelligence again. Read the rest of this post...

We've got no intel on Iran

We don't even have the intelligence to enter negotiations with Iran. Forget about negotiations, having no real intelligence has not been an impediment to war for the Bush team. In the warped world view of George Bush, if there is no intel, we'll have to go to war:

The U.S. intelligence community is ill-prepared to assess Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities and its intentions for developing weapons of mass destruction, a congressional report said on Wednesday.

Noting "significant gaps in our knowledge and understanding of the various areas of concern about Iran," the House Intelligence Committee staff report questioned whether the United States could even effectively engage in talks with Tehran on ways to diffuse tensions.

The neo-cons will have to go in to overdrive to spin war with Iran. They've got Chris Matthews on their side according to Think Progress. Read the rest of this post...

Bush sues Maine to protect Verizon

The Bush administration sued the state of Maine this week over the domestic spying issue:

A lawsuit aimed at preventing the Maine Public Utilities Commission from inquiring into Verizon Communication's alleged cooperation with a domestic surveillance program marks a new level of aggressiveness by the federal government, privacy advocates say.

The new level of aggressiveness stems from the fact that Maine didn't even file a lawsuit against Verizon. The state only asked Verizon to verify that it told the truth in press releases the company issued earlier this year:

On Aug. 9, the PUC issued a written order requiring Verizon to affirm the truth of seven statements the company issued in two press releases in May. The press releases were included in the company's response to the PUC.

In the unsigned statements, Verizon asserted in broad language that it had not broken any state or federal laws involving the privacy of telephone customers.

In its order, the PUC asked that a responsible company official issue a sworn statement affirming the truth of the statements.

So, Bush is suing one of the states he purports to govern because the state asked a major telecom to verify what the telecom already stated publicly. As absurd as it sounds, Bush thinks that violates national security:

In its lawsuit, the U.S. government said the company could not comply with the order without endangering national security.

"The United States will be irreparably harmed if Verizon is permitted or is required to disclose sensitive and classified information to the (PUC)."

Irreparable harm will come to all of us if Verizon has to tell the truth. Press releases don't require the truth, but answers to the government -- even state government -- do. Bush will go to any lengths to protect a major corporation in America. The only reason to go to such lengths is that Verizon is not telling the truth in their press releases -- which would mean that Verizon worked with the NSA. Read the rest of this post...

Osama would vote Republican

I'm reading Ron Suskind's book "The One Percent Doctrine" and I've come to a rather interesting and relevant part dealing with why we haven't been hit since September 11 (other than the Anthrax attacks).

There is a strong belief inside the US government that perhaps the reason we haven't been hit is because Osama decided a while back NOT to hit us again on the US mainland. Rather, he is targeting our allies (Spain and England particularly), the argument goes, in order to force them to pull out of Iraq, and more generally distance themselves from the US, in order to leave us all alone in our Iraqi quagmire, thus making Iraq an even BIGGER quagmire (taking the financial and military hit), but just as importantly, making the US (and its Arab allies, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan) the focus of all the Muslim rage that will continue to build because of the US presence in Iraq.

Or to put it more simply, Osama wanted the US to invade the Middle East, and he really wants us to stay there because our presence helps generate anti-US and pro-Osama feelings.

Or even more simply, Osama wants us to "stay the course" in Iraq. George Bush and the stay-the-course Republicans are Osama's wet dream.

This also means that Bush has been lying to the America people about why it is we haven't been hit since September 11. He knows that it isn't at all clear that we haven't been hit because he's supposedly done such a good job breaking up terror cells.

First, I can't think of a single terror cell that seriously threatened the US mainland (perhaps that plane plot to hit that building in LA, and I say perhaps because you'll notice we haven't heard Bush boasting about that plot at all, and you know as well as I that we'd still be hearing about it if it were true). As for Bush's other great terror cell capers, the guys in NY were a joke, the guys in Florida a second joke, Padilla a third joke, and who else is there that we the US broke up? Oh yeah, the nutjob who wanted to take down the Brooklyn Bridge with a blowtorch, yeah he was a big threat.

One plot that was real, and which Bush was NOT responsible for breaking up, was a planned 2003 Al Qaeda poisoned gas attack against the NYC subway. It wasn't by George Bush or anyone in the US government. It was stopped by Zawahiri, bin Laden's right-hand man. We would have been hit again but bin Laden's guy called it off, not George Bush. So George Bush's policies don't get the credit. This is also further evidence that Al Qaeda, for whatever reason, has decided NOT to hit the US mainland since September 11.

So what this tells us is:

1. George Bush is lying when he talks about how everyone should vote Republican because we haven't been hit since September 11. He knows damn well that it's quite possible we haven't been hit because bin Laden has decided not to hit us in the US.

2. George Bush is doing exactly what bin Laden wants by keeping US troops in Iraq. According to the Suskind book, bin Laden was hoping we'd invade Afghanistan and that IT would become our quagmire to inflame the Middle East. The fact that Iraq ultimately became the quagmire wasn't the initial plan, but it's working just as well to isolate our country and foment even more anti-Americanism across the globe.

So, that makes George Bush the closest thing to the al Qaeda candidate, and it makes anyone who wants US troops to remain in Iraq the next best thing to al Qaeda enablers.

Try them apples, Karl. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Just another Metro station near my place. Click the image to see a larger version.

Read the rest of this post...

Racist GOP ad in RI GOP Senate Primary

Ugly stuff from the National Republican Senatorial Committee led by Liddy Dole. This blatantly racist ad is what they're doing to fellow Republicans. Imagine what they have in store for Democrats. Read the rest of this post...

Sunni versus Shia foolishness

The always-worthwhile Martini Republic explores the stupidity of observers who are trying to claim that Shia muslims "have surpassed the Sunnis as the main threat to the West." Leaving aside the idiocy of trying to debate whether a group of 1 billion people (Sunni) or 250 million (Shia) are the "main threat," the groups that have actually planned and/or executed attacks against the U.S. are overwhelmingly Sunni. So Sunni muslims aren't a "greater threat" than Shia, but Sunni groups are more problematic for U.S. security than are Shia ones.

This is the kind of foolishness that results from deciding what the conclusion will be -- in this case, that the Iraq war is a strategic benefit to the U.S. -- and then desperately trying to find reasonable-sounding support, rather than looking at the facts and making a determination from them, rather than for them. Money quote from Martini:

Just how did we enhance our strategic position vis-a-vis Iran, by eliminating a state which was no threat to us, and yet remained a threat to Iran? What Powerline has done is found a mountain of horseshit, concluded that there must be a pony around somewhere, and then started grasping for an imaginary benefit derived from Bush’s fumbling.

The instability in Iraq benefits Iran and hurts the U.S., in terms of power and influence in the Middle East, and continuing a military presence that is steadily increasing U.S. hatred among muslims in the Middle East (and beyond) does nothing to remedy that. Read the rest of this post...

Church reverend says women have nothing to teach men

Gee, wonder who he voted for last election?

As a bonus, check out the ad running on the page with this article, it's priceless in context.

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"Macaca" demands GOP Senator George Allen call him to apologize

Republican Senator George Allen, who last week used a racial epithet to refer to a dark-skinned Virginia man of Indian origin, has yet to make any effort to contact the student in order to apologize. Yesterday the student again demanded that Allen make the simple effort to call him with an apology. Read the rest of this post...

Religious right accused of tricking signatories in anti-gay campaign

So the pro-gay folks in Massachusetts are publishing the name of every person who signed the anti-gay petitions, so you can check if you or a friend are on the list and make sure the signature was intended for this purpose. Interesting. Read the rest of this post...

Bush's execution of the "war on terror" has helped Iran

That's good news. The new "big bad" is actually even badder because of Bush. Feeling safer yet? Read the rest of this post...

Another GOP incumbent bites the dust

The governor of Alaska, who was a total moron. This guy made George Bush look smart. And his incompetence finally caught up with him.

The tide against incumbency continues. Read the rest of this post...

Conservative TV host says Bush does not inspire confidence

Former conservative Republican congressman Joe Scarborough, who last week discussed at length whether Bush "was an idiot," revisited the topic again today. He includes an entire, wonderful series of video Bushisms. John Amato at Crooks and Liars has the video, it's great. The rest of the video is a conservative spin-meister trying to explain that Bush really isn't an idiot.

But of course, Bush is an idiot. He lost an entire American city. He was in charge of the biggest US foreign policy disaster since Vietnam (if not bigger than Vietnam). He's spending hundreds of billions a year on TAX CUTS - not on the war on terror, on TAX CUTS.

George Bush is quite likely the worst president in US history. But there's something worse. Scarborough notes how Bush's mental capacity has declined dramatically since the early 90s. In the early 90s, he was actually intelligent, alert, answered questions quickly and smartly. Bush has changed dramatically as he's aged, to the point where you will not recognize the man he was a little over a decade ago. Scarborough is right, something is going on with Bush and his health, and it is not clear if our country can afford two more years of George Bush's increasingly erratic behavior.

Watch the video of Bush then and now for yourself.

Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Good morning. Read the rest of this post...