Open thread

Seven more weeks until the Republicans lose the House. Oh joy! Read the rest of this post...

Clinton plots his comeback

The UK's Observer newspaper takes a look at Bill Clinton, using our recent blogger meeting with him as part of the evidence that Clinton is plotting a much larger comeback.

I hope it's true. America could use hearing from a real president. Read the rest of this post...

Bush's approval has dropped 6 points in three days

Talking Points Memo has the latest from Rasmussen Reports which does daily tracking of Bush's approval rating using a rolling three-day average:

The latest Bush bounce is over. Today, 41% of American adults approve of the way that President Bush is performing his job and 57% disapprove. That’s exactly where the numbers were before the President’s 9/11 speech.

Thursday (which was the first three day cycle post 9/11), Bush's approval had risen to 47. Since then, it's dropped 6 points. Rush Limbaugh maintains that Rasmussen's approval rating has always had Bush higher than most:

although I should say that I think Rasmussen has always had the president's approval numbers higher than any of the other national polls.

The post 9/11 period was supposed to show a surge that would carry Bush and the GOP through to November 7th. WRONG. Read the rest of this post...

US imprisons AP photographer for 5 months without charges, no evidence

This is the kind of thing the Soviets did. This is the kind of thing the Russians still do. This is what Republicans stand for. Sickening. Read the rest of this post...

Jim Webb explains the real Iraq-terror connection

One of the best explanations I've seen given:



"We didn't go in to Iraq because of terrorism. We have terrorists in Iraq because we went in there." Read the rest of this post...

Neo-Nazis to win regional election seats today in Germany

What an embarrassment. Every country, whether we are talking about Europe, the US or anywhere, has its looney bunch who manage to capitalize on the failures and problems of the government. I just saw a magazine cover posted at a newsstand two days ago with the face of Le Pen who will no doubt have some presence in the elections next year in France. One would hope that over time these people would do themselves in but they just seem to keep coming back. Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Today's line-up features the growing GOP civil war. On one side, the Bush administration is pushing their torture agenda -- which further endangers the lives of American soldiers. "This Week" and "Face the Nation" will have the other GOP side of this debate. This fight has consumed the GOP and thrown off Rove's attack agenda. At the core seems to be growing admission from GOP Senators with military experience that Bush is a disaster on national security.

Jim Webb debates G. Felix Macaca Allen on Russert:

FOX NEWS SUNDAY...: Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte and House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio).

THIS WEEK (ABC...: National security adviser Stephen J. Hadley , Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and singer/songwriter Jewel .

FACE THE NATION (CBS...: Hadley , and Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.).

MEET THE PRESS (NBC...: Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) and Virginia Senate candidate James Webb (D).

LATE EDITION (CNN), 11 a.m.: Hadley, Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.); Lt. Gen. Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai , Pakistani provincial governor; investor George Soros; Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie .

If you're watching, provide commentary, document the lies and make fun of Felix. Read the rest of this post...

With no formal apology, even more hysteria over Pope's attack

Who ever would have guessed that attacking the faith of a billion people would cause such a commotion? He's a uniter, not a divider. Oh, that's the other guy, but same, same. They both seem oblivious to the modern world and stuck in the dark ages with their thinking. Now the Pope is being criticized for his half hearted attempt to skirt around the issue instead of just apologizing. Worse yet, he could not even do that himself and passed the message through others. There's real leadership for the world. How bold. Too bad the Vatican doesn't have press conferences like other politicians have so someone could ask him how he thought those words would help bridge the religions.

Turkey cast some doubt on whether Benedict could proceed with a planned visit in November in what would be the pontiff's first trip to a Muslim nation.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted the pope apologize to the Muslim world, saying he had spoken "not like a man of religion but like a usual politician."

Read the rest of this post...

Former GOP congressman Joe Scarborough eviscerates Bush in Sunday's Washington Post

"The" story this election isn't the civil war in Iraq, it's the civil war in the Republican party. Front page of the Outlook Section, no less.

I can't help but feel sorry for my old Republican friends in Congress who are fighting for their political lives. After all, it must be tough explaining to voters at their local Baptist church's Keep Congress Conservative Day that it was their party that took a $155 billion surplus and turned it into a record-setting $400 billion deficit.

How exactly does one convince the teeming masses that Republicans deserve to stay in power despite botching a war, doubling the national debt, keeping company with Jack Abramoff, fumbling the response to Hurricane Katrina, expanding the government at record rates, raising cronyism to an art form, playing poker with Duke Cunningham, isolating America and repeatedly electing Tom DeLay as their House majority leader?

How does a God-fearing Reagan Republican explain all that away?

Easy. Blame George W. Bush....

Even when the administration would not give generals the troops they needed to win the war in Iraq, Republican leaders did nothing. When the president refused to veto a single spending bill while the deficit spiraled upward, Republican leaders looked away. And when chaos was reigning in the streets of New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast in Katrina's horrific aftermath, Republican leaders remained mute.

That silence -- proof that it is better to be feared than loved in politics -- has had devastating results. The United States is more divided than ever, our leaders are despised around the world, our fiscal situation is catastrophic and congressional approval ratings are the lowest ever. Since nothing sharpens the mind like a political hanging, Republican leaders in the Senate and House are finally considering doing what effete newspaper editorialists have suggested for years: throwing Bush overboard....

Of course, you GOP candidates can be sure that such attacks will annoy Bush, even though your survival may be all that stands between him and a crazy Democratic chairman launching impeachment hearings. But if you win this fall only to face his stern rebuke next winter, just tell him it was schadenfreude for all the times the White House treated you badly. With any luck, Bush will think you are talking about that Berlin disco that Moammar Gaddafi bombed back in 1986 and then dismiss you like the worthless billy goat he always suspected you were.

Read the rest of this post...