Who knew Vegas had mountains?

With sunlight, the view from the hotel room just got a whole lot better. Click for a larger pic. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

Let's talk about what a loser Bill Frist is...two major losses this week: gay marriage and the estate tax. He's a disaster. And he wants to be your President. Hopefully, he'll lead his party to minority status in the Senate first.

So, chat already. Read the rest of this post...

AP Poll: Most Americans think Iraq was a mistake

Americans think both Iraq and Bush are mistakes:

The poll, taken Monday through Wednesday before news broke that U.S. forces had killed al-Zarqawi, found that 59 percent of adults say the United States made a mistake in going to war in Iraq - the highest level yet in AP-Ipsos polling.

Approval of President Bush's handling of Iraq dipped to 33 percent, a new low. His overall job approval was 35 percent, statistically within range of his low of 33 percent last month. The poll of 1,003 adults has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Next week, Bush is having a retreat at Camp David to figure out a strategy for Iraq. That should clear everything up. Read the rest of this post...

Senate rejects estate tax

The incredible shrinking Republican majority. Read the rest of this post...

Dangers of increased Shia dissatisfaction, internal strife

UPDATE: Half the post was cut off earlier. We hate blogger.

Many Iraq pundits incorrectly view the Sunni insurgency as the greatest threat to both a stable government and Coalition forces. In truth, the most dangerous scenario in Iraq would be a collapse of the tenuous alliance between major Shia groups. Those bonds are currently being stretched to the breaking point, and ground zero appears to be Basra, a southern province with huge oil revenue potential. Basra was essentially handed over by the British to armed gangs, and three main Shia groups (SCIRI, Fadilah, and Sadrists) are struggling to control the local government and, therefore, the oil wealth.

These issues expose the difficulty of the withdrawal options: default control to local militias, as the British apparently did, and it invites anarchy that would not necessarily have otherwise occurred. Wait too long to leave, however, and troops are likely to get in the middle of Shia vs. Shia conflict. Anti-Coalition attacks by Sunni (20% of the population) is bad; increased anti-Coalition attacks by Shia (60%), if some Shia groups begin to see the U.S. as favoring one subgroup or another, would be a total debacle. Obviously Iraq is already quite the disaster, but Shia-U.S. violence would bring it to an entirely new level.

This is a primary reason why the stay-the-course "strategy" is so foolish and dangerous. In order to redeploy our troops, there has to be a plan. Refusing to consider withdrawal seems to have eliminated the planning for it. To get out with even minimal order, the U.S. should be proactively helping to establish power-sharing arrangements not just at the national level, but even more importantly, at the provincial level. If things go bad down the road within sectarian groups, then, at least we won't be in the middle of it. And before you start sharpening the knives -- this isn't an argument against withdrawal, but rather to say that when we do start to cede control, setting the stage for troop removal (as we have seen with the superbases), there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. Needless to say, I'm not optimistic. Read the rest of this post...

Americans want universal health care

So it looks like the American public has spoken on the issue and now the GOP Congress gets its chance to completely screw it up. The US did not have the money for Kyoto yet somehow "found" the same amount to fund a failed adventure in Iraq. For something as critical as the health of a nation, who wants to guess that the GOP won't be able to find the money for that but will somehow find a way to dish out more corporate welfare for Big Oil, Big Pharma and other campaign contributors? Just like the GOP watered down anti-corruption legislation, you just know they will do the same with health care despite calls for change from the nation.

The federal government should guarantee that all Americans have basic health insurance coverage, says a committee set up by Congress to find out what people want when it comes to health care.

"Assuring health care is a shared social responsibility," says the interim report of the Citizens' Health Care Working Group, a 14-member committee that went to 50 communities and heard from 23,000 people.

If you don't give money to feed the machine, you don't amount to anything with the cash & carry GOP. As long as the GOP remains in control, the average Joe will continue to be lower than whale shit in the eyes of the Republican party. Get used to it or do something about it.

Read the rest of this post...

Wash that man-whore right out of your hair, eh congressman?

A very-trusted little birdie, with a number of trusted sources, tells us that a certain conservative anti-gay northeastern Republican congressman got into some trouble with the cops a number of years ago for soliciting a male prostitute (some reports said the prostitute was also a minor). This was before he was a member of Congress. Fortunately for the future congressman, the story goes, a good buddy was in a position to wipe the record clean.

Can you name that congressman?

Now we know John Boehner wants a vote in the House next month on their version of the anti-gay amendment. Please help defend marriage - contact Congress and ask them just how well they're defending THEIR marriages. Action alert here. Read the rest of this post...

Zarqawi

1. As Chris noted, we'll find out soon just how important Zarqawi was to all the violence. If the violence abates, Bush was right. If it continues, then we got fed another lie.

2. Al Qaeda is - what? - like 10% of the total problem we're facing in Iraq? Most of the fighters are home grown and have nothing to do with Al Qaeda, so how does Zarqawi's death help change anything?

3. The Sunnis and the Shiites hate each other. Again, how does Zarqawi's death change that?

4. How's Osama doing?

If Zarqawi is such a big deal, then it's great that we got him. But I can't help but feel a nagging "so what" in my gut, at least as it concerns the situation in Iraq. In a month, I fear things are going to be just as bad as ever, and the public will quickly forget the "victory" over Zarqawi just as the capture of Saddam didn't change much either.

It's a civil war, and our commander in chief is incompetent. Plus ca change... Read the rest of this post...

The Congressional Black Caucus rallies around crook

Seriously, they have nothing better to fight for than this idiot?

More from Markos. Read the rest of this post...

Dem. group buying ads during World Cup

Good way to court the Hispanic voters. The World Cup can be the Democrat's version of NASCAR:

World Cup soccer is "mas que un partido" - more than a game - to a group of Democrats. It's a chance to win over Hispanic voters.

The New Democrat Network is starting a $2 million Spanish-language campaign of radio and television ads urging Hispanics to get involved in the political process. The five-month effort begins with ads during the World Cup soccer games that begin this weekend in Germany.

And they're using that GOOOOAAAALLLL guy in one of the ads. Read the rest of this post...

The culture of corruption continues within the GOP

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) has been providing plenty of material for TPMmuckraker and now he's bursting onto the scene on NBC. Lisa Myers interviewed the former CEO of a software business who had some rather interesting relationships with Lewis. Read the interview and check out TPMmuckraker to get the full picture of corruption within the top ranks of the GOP.

Lisa Myers: You were allowed to write language for an appropriations bill yourself?

Casey: Yes, I did. That was Congressman Lewis' suggestion.

Casey says Lewis repeatedly urged him to hire a lobbyist, former U.S. Rep. Bill Lowery, Lewis' close friend, and when that didn't happen, pressed for another favor.

Casey: Congressman Lewis asked me to set up stock options for Bill Lowery in our company.

Casey says Lewis suggested he issue the stock options in Canada Â? in someone else's name.

Myers: Did you view it as an effort to hide what was really going on?

Casey: It was intended to conceal his participation, yes.

Read the rest of this post...

Specter's miffed at Cheney -- think Cheney cares?

Arlen's mad at Dick. Oh sure, it's ostensibly because Cheney is undermining the Constitution. And, because Dick is being a bully with Arlen's committee. But, Arlen's latest outburst probably has more to do with Cheney ignoring him at the Senator's lunch:

''This was especially perplexing since we both attended the Republican senators caucus lunch yesterday,'' Specter wrote, ''and I walked directly in front of you on at least two occasions en route from the buffet to my table.''

What is this? High School.

Specter's such a wimp. All Cheney has to do is bark at him once, and Arlen will back down -- again. Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Busy morning on the news shows....The President will speak at 7:30 am about Al Zarqawi.

What else? Read the rest of this post...

Iraq PM says al-Zarqawi killed yesterday

It doesn't sound like they have proven it yet with DNA testing but they sound pretty sure that it was him. I suppose in the coming months that we will find out if he was behind all of the troubles or just a piece of the big puzzle. He's been demonized (clearly he was a bad guy) as the central figure in the problems over there so it will be interesting to see the actual impact of his death.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said al-Zarqawi was killed Wednesday evening along with seven aides.

Read the rest of this post...

Kids today just aren't the same as in the old days

iPods are more popular than beer for college students this year.

Nearly three quarters, or 73 percent, of 1,200 students surveyed said iPods were "in" Â? more than any other item in a list that also included text messaging, bar hopping and downloading music.

Read the rest of this post...

BREAKING: Zarqawi reportedly dead

I was just about to go to sleep, after a really long day of travel, when I did one last check of CNN. They're carrying live a press conference led by Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki, who is announcing that Zarqawi has been killed.

Details are sketchy, and the U.S. is apparently waiting to comment until after Maliki's announcement. Here's the latest on CNN, which I'm sure will update as the night progresses.

I'm going to stay up for just a few more minutes; if there's anything I can provide insight on, I'll try to do so in the comments.

My first reaction, though, is this: GREAT. Whatever you think about the war in Iraq, Zarqawi was a significant threat to Coalition troops and Iraqi military forces and civilians, and his death is a victory for progress and security.

UPDATE: He was apparently killed in an airstrike undertaken by U.S. Special Operations Forces just north of Baghdad, near Baquba. While the so-called al Qa'ida in Iraq was a relatively small group, it's an important success for both tactical and psychological reasons due to the disproportionate impact they had through mass casualty operations. I gotsta go to sleep, but hopefully more info tomorrow . . . Read the rest of this post...

This time change thing is really not good

Just got back from dinner. Ugh. At the YearlyKos conference in Vegas. We have a full-day media training tomorrow, starting at 8:15AM. UGH. Will be worthwhile though - the same guy who did the training for us in SF will be conducting. Basically, he's helping a group of us bloggers get better at presenting ourselves, and our side of the argument, on TV. He even gave us homework! I'm getting up at 7 to do it. Hopefully they'll let us blog during the training - not sure. Anyway, Joe will cover for part of the day, and then he's flying out here too tomorrow afternoon. I'm sitting on 3 different panels - 2 for the Kos conference Friday afternoon, and one for a Young Democrats group on Saturday, they're holding a convention here as well. Should be fun. Read the rest of this post...