Open thread

I got nothing. Read the rest of this post...

Republicans have lots of respect for our dead troops. Too bad they couldn't care less about the living ones.

Everyone remember this little beauty from the 2004 campaign, when George Bush decided to use the 3,000 dead on September 11 as campaign props?


Well, apparently now that the war on terror and the war in Iraq have become one big fiasco (where is Osama, anyway?), the Republican party has suddenly decided that talking about both wars is no longer politically correct. Which of course is understandable. I wouldn't want anyone talking about my biggest failures either, especially if they led to the deaths of nearly 3,000 US soldiers in a senseless war that's become a fiasco due to my incompetence.

I bring this up because the Republicans are now freaking out - meaning, they're running scared - over a new Democratic video highlighting Bush's many failures, and how America has taken a "turn for the worse" under Bush's and the Republicans' stewardship. And the video is of course, correct. It shows photos of pollution, the abysmal response to Hurricane Katrina, and the failed Iraq war, among other examples of Republican incompetence. The Iraq war photos in the video include that now-famous photo of the flag-draped coffins in the military jet coming back to the states from Iraq. Rightly suggesting that the deaths of nearly 3,000 US troops in a fiasco of a war is most certainly a "turn for the worse" that America has suffered under George Bush's presidency.

Now, you'll recall that George Bush has refused to attend even a single funeral of a US service member killed in Iraq.

And you'll recall that Bush has tried to stop the media from showing the arrival of the coffins of any US soldier who died in Iraq. Thousands of dead heroes are kind of a downer when you're trying to con the public into thinking everything is going swell.

So you won't be surprised to find out that the Republicans are now feigning freak out over the pictures of the coffins serving as a moving memorial to how sad and wrong it is that Bush and the Republicans are responsible for killing nearly 3,000 of our proud US troops.

What would the Republicans prefer we use to depict the tragedy of the deaths of our soldiers at the hands of a commander in chief who is inept and a Republican congress that is non-existent? Well, we already have that answer: The Republicans prefer we don't acknowledge the deaths of our troops at all. To the Republicans running Washington, DC, the deaths of our soldiers in Iraq are an embarrassment, an inconvenient truth one might even say. To Republicans in Washington, American soldiers don't matter, dead or alive, unless you're a Republican running for re-election, then our troops pop up in all your campaign events and ads as if they're our troops' new best friend, only to be forgotten until the next election.

But Republicans are not our troops' best friend.

Republicans sent our troops to Iraq to risk their lives for a lie. They sent our men and women into battle without the body armor they needed to stay alive. Republicans sent them in insufficient numbers to get the job done. They sent them with no plan for victory, no plan for exit. They sent them without even enough food.

Republicans cut the funding for veterans back here in America, and have left scores of Iraq war vets now homeless. And Republicans refuse to even consider pulling our troops out of a failed Iraq war, even as our troops continue to die each and every day - and why? - because a withdrawal would be an embarrassment to our failed commander in chief George Bush. And in a Republican's mind, what's a few thousand dead US troops when compared to possibly embarrassing the worst president ever?

So, the Republicans are understandably freaking out. After all, George Bush and the Republicans are responsible for the biggest US military failure since Vietnam. (And Dick Cheney is responsible for cutting the US military budget far beyond what anyone ever even wanted.) The only way the Republicans know to react is not to fix the problem, but rather to attack the messenger and distract the public.

So, expect to hear a lot from the Republicans in the coming days about how much they respect our dead troops.

Maybe someday they'll respect the ones who are still alive too. Read the rest of this post...

Conservatives force newspaper to dump Ann Coulter's column

Holy cow, conservatives may finally be waking up about the current crop representing them. I really do think this is quite a fascinating nugget hidden in this story.

Said the paper that just dumped Coulter:

“Liberals have never liked her, and we’ve always gotten complaints [from them]. But the complaints that mattered the most were from the conservative readers,” who felt that their views were being misrepresented.

Read the rest of this post...

First Review of Upcoming Frank Rich Book: "A Savaging Sermon" on the Bush Years

From Editor & Publisher. Read the rest of this post...

Associated Press calls 14-year-old Iraqi rape victim a "woman" - this is the girl raped by US troops

First, why would a journalist call a 14 year old girl a "woman"?

Second, AP has already been put on notice that folks were a bit concerned about their calling a 14 year old girl a "woman" - so why are they still doing it?

Third, calling a 14 year old rape victim a "woman" even further trivializes the crime - not because raping "women" is somehow less offensive okay, but rather because raping children is even more offensive.

So the question remains, knowing all of this, why would the Associated Press continue to use language in their story that is incorrect, misleading, and lessens the gravity of the true offense?

Because the perpetrator was a US soldier, perhaps? Or because the victim was only some lowly Iraqi, and when they're raped, it's really only 3/5ths a rape? Read the rest of this post...

Evangelicals support torture

If that isn't the biggest bunch of garbage you've ever heard, well... It never ceases to amaze me how un-Christian and fringe America's religious right leadership truly is.

Their latest target? They're upset about a religious effort to oppose torture. And apparently, even more bizarre, their argument goes something along the lines of: There is torture in Saudi Arabia and China and North Korea so why should we be upset about it in America?

Well, here's a thought. Because some of us don't want to live in Saudi Arabia, China or North Korea. And because some of us actually expect more from America than we expect from a communist dictatorship. I mean, do these people use the same arguments about the Ten Commandments? Hey, God's law is a good idea, but let's face it, Godless murderers don't abide by God's law, so why should we?

These people are an ongoing embarrassment to everything God and Jesus and religion stand for. They're an embarrassment to all Christians, and especially, evangelicals. They're not people of faith, they're not Godly, they're not Christian. They're simply some very angry, nasty, hateful far-right conservatives who like to wrap their hate in the mantle of God because otherwise they'd be exposed as the out-of-touch kooks they really are.

It's high time real evangelicals and real Christians stood up to these sick brutes and told them enough is enough. Read the rest of this post...

Now Reuters jumps on the "Bush the diplomat" bandwagon

It's nice to see that Reuters also received the hard sell from the White House on this new theory. Let's face facts here: Bush and his attack first, ask questions later policy was a massive failure. It did not work. Period. We see the results every day in Iraq and we're losing Afghanistan because of his incompetence. He has no options left because of his incompetence so let's not confuse realities on the ground with him suddenly becoming a diplomat because he's a thinker.

As I read this piece, I am once again reminded of what an arrogant ass he is, because I can't imagine anyone being receptive to his personal little power trips. I may not like Prodi and also find him incompetent, but Bush's antics that he's bragging about are flat out disrespectful and embarrassing. Snapping towels with frat boys might be fine for his lot, but with foreign leaders that you are not even friends with? Who raised this guy and told him this was acceptable?

Finally, how did these words leave Snow's lips without either him or journalists bursting out in laughter?

Although he is often portrayed as a bit of a bull in a china shop, White House spokesman Tony Snow credited Bush with "a chess player's ability to think several moves ahead" in his dealings with foreign leaders.

"He tries to figure out what incentives are going to appeal to people to inspire them in a way that we think is helpful and right. It's a real gift and it's something you don't see unless you are on the inside," Snow said.

I'll bet few ever see that gift. I wonder what moves he saw coming in Iraq?

Read the rest of this post...

Justice Department Lawyer To Congress: The President Is Always Right

Except when he's wrong. Which is most of the time. Read the rest of this post...

So who wants to grab a pint with AMERICAblog's Joe Sudbay in Ireland later this week?

He's going to be in Galway for a family wedding, would like to do an AMERICAblog meet-up. He arrives Thursday, can't do it Friday, but can do it I Saturday, Sunday or Monday.

Anyone near Galway interested? Read the rest of this post...

White House paying $100,000 salary to "Director of Lessons Learned"

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) offers a few more lessons learned:

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the President said we continue to be wise about how we spend the people's money.

"Then why are we paying over $100,000 for a 'White House Director of Lessons Learned'?

"Maybe I can save the taxpayers $100,000 by running through a few of the lessons this White House should have learned by now.

"Lesson 1: When the Army Chief of Staff and the Secretary of State say you are going to war without enough troops, you're going to war without enough troops.

"Lesson 2: When 8.8 billion dollars of reconstruction funding disappears from Iraq, and 2 billion dollars disappears from Katrina relief, it's time to demand a little accountability.

"Lesson 3: When you've 'turned the corner' in Iraq more times than Danica Patrick at the Indy 500, it means you are going in circles.

"Lesson 4: When the national weather service tells you a category 5 hurricane is heading for New Orleans, a category 5 hurricane is heading to New Orleans.

"I would also ask the President why we're paying for two 'Ethics Advisors' and a 'Director of Fact Checking.'

"They must be the only people in Washington who get more vacation time than the President.

"Maybe the White House could consolidate these positions into a Director of Irony."

Read the rest of this post...

DC police chief declares "crime emergency"

Yeah, DC crime is just like crime back home, all major cities have it. Oh, that's right, I can't recall ever having had crime state of emergencies declared back home.

D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey reacted yesterday to a recent surge in homicides by declaring a "crime emergency," a move that gives him the freedom to quickly adjust officers' schedules and restrict their days off.

Fourteen people have been killed since July 1 in the District, in all quadrants of the city, and police are being pressured to take action by residents at community meetings and vigils to honor the dead.

The victims included a popular store owner slain at closing time, a community activist killed in a park and a British citizen whose throat was slit in Georgetown.

The most recent to die was 23-year-old Michael Dorsey, of Capitol Heights. He was found shot in the chest just after 2 a.m. this morning, in the hallway of an apartment building of Gallaudet St. NE. Three other people were also shot in the city overnight, but were expected to live, police said.

For years now, DC has had one of the worst violent crime rates of any state and/or major metropolitan area in America. Even if violent crime improves across the country, and even if it improves in DC, we never stop being one of the worst in the entire country, if not the worst.

It's a bit like a student failing a test, repeatedly, for years, then claiming that he did better this year. Sure he did, but the entire class did better too, and they did better than him, so he still gets an F. Or at best, he finally gets an F+. That's nothing to be proud about. These are the same issues I worked on a few years back after my mugging. Same clowns, same circus. Nothing ever changes in the city that wants to be a real boy. Read the rest of this post...

Rummy makes "surprise" visit to Iraq, just in time to experience typical day

Not that he's noticed, because he sees everything going well and problems are only in parts of Baghdad anyway. If violence in Iraq is so limited to specific areas, why don't we see Rumsfeld and other architects of that mess walking around Baghdad more? It's safe according to them, so let's see some more face time in Iraq and show some real support since the problems apparently are only in the minds of the locals and not based on reality. Whatcha say, Rummy? How about a nice stroll through some of those peaceful neighborhoods that you're talking about?

Back in the real Iraq, more killed and more abducted. Read the rest of this post...

Putin smacks Cheney

Bush's soul mate dissed Bush's running mate during his interview with Matt Lauer:

Cheney, in a May speech in the ex-Soviet republic of Lithuania, accused Russia of cracking down on religious and political rights and of using its energy reserves as “tools of intimidation or blackmail.”

In response, Putin said, “I think the statements of your vice president of this sort are the same as an unsuccessful hunting shot. It’s pretty much the same.”

Read the rest of this post...

"A low-grade civil war"

That's how Iraqis are describing the situation in Iraq:

Tuesday’s killings, many of them apparently carried out with sectarian vengeance, raised the three-day death toll in the capital alone to well over 100, magnified the daunting challenges facing the new government and deepened a sense of dread among Iraqis.

Many of the attacks, particularly those in neighborhoods primarily populated by one religious group or another, bore the hallmarks of sectarian militias, both Sunni Arab and Shiite. Militias now appear to be dictating the ebb and flow of life in Iraq, and have left the new government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and his American counterparts scrambling to come up with a military and political strategy to combat them.

Is this the progress of which Bush speaks?

Rumsfeld is in Iraq today on a "surprise" visit to check up on all the progress. Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Hot and humid in DC. And, we're in a "crime emergency."

What happened over night? Read the rest of this post...

He's a "values" kind of guy

Whose values, I'm not sure. I wasn't aware that Abramoff and Big Gambling were right wing christian values but who am I to argue? The Democrats have done such a miserable job making a mockery out of so-called values so we might as well let the GOP do the job. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Bed time. Joe, by the way, is off to Ireland later today to attend a relative's wedding in Galway. He says he's happy to try to set up an AMERICAblog meet-up over coffee or a pint with any readers who might be in the area (do we have any in that area?) Anyway, just wanted to throw that out there if anyone is in that part of the world.

JOHN Read the rest of this post...