Ford ripped Reagan in interviews

The US headlines have been about Ford's criticism of Carter, which he later softened, but what is much more interesting to me is what he had to say about Reagan. I used to work for a few Texans who thought Reagan was the greatest human ever to walk the earth and who told everyone who would listen (and also those of us who tried to ignore them) that Reagan took down the Evil Empire with one hand tied behind his back, all alone. Uh huh, nothing to do with fifty years of policy whatsoever.

"It makes me very irritated when Reagan's people pound their chests and say that because we had this big military buildup, the Kremlin collapsed," Ford told The Grand Rapids Press.

And later...

Ford said Reagan, who challenged him unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination in 1976, was "a great spokesman for attractive political objectives" such as a balanced budget and defeating communism, "but when it came to implementation, his record never matched his words."

Reagan was "probably the least well-informed on the details of running the government of any president I knew," Ford said. In a separate interview, he said Reagan "was just a poor manager, and you can't be president and do a good job unless you manage."

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Senator Webb shows how to actually support troops, not just talk about it

Lots of Senators, especially Republicans, talk about supporting the troops. Talk is cheap. One new Senator is actually taking action to support the troops:

Keeping a promise he made on the campaign trail in 2006, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) did more for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on his first day in the Senate than the man he ousted, George Felix Allen, did in the entire previous Congress.

Going unnoticed in the frenzy of Democrats assuming control of Capitol Hill and George W. Bush seeking to plunge the country deeper into the Iraq quagmire, Webb introduced the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2007, legislation that will provide the newest Veterans with educational benefits like those received by men and women who served in the three decades following World War II.

Let's see if the GOP will put its money where its mouth is. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

I am so watching "24" tonight. Read the rest of this post...

Isn't this what used to happen along the Berlin Wall?

This guy was with his family crossing the Mexican-US border. Maybe there were extreme circumstances but the first glance sounds pretty shocking.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed a 22-year-old Mexican who was crossing illegally into the United States, U.S. police said Saturday.

The agent shot Francisco Dominguez, who had crossed into Arizona with family members and other migrants, while trying to take him into custody, Cochise County Sheriff's Office spokesman Carol Capas said.

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Religious right leader James Dobson on John McCain: "I pray that we won't get stuck with him"

Dobson is THE religious right leader, number one dog, biggest guy out there. Now that he has written McCain off, due to McCain's incessant waffling on cultural issues (the man's senior staff have been gay for decades), then McCain's hope to win over the religious right is dead.

"Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances," said James Dobson, founder of the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family as well as the Focus Action cultural action organization set up specifically to provide a platform for informing and rallying constituents....

[T]he McCain Feingold Bill kept us from telling the truth right before elections … and there are a lot of other things. He's not in favor of traditional marriage, and I pray that we won't get stuck with him," Dobson said.

Dobson is an idiot, but he's not an idiot. John McCain abhors the religious right, he said so himself. And no amount of McCain double-talk is going to change that fact. And Dobson knows it.

(Hat tip, Blog for Arizona.) Read the rest of this post...

Cheney attacks majority of Americans who are concerned about Iraq war

If you are one of the 70% or so of Americans who have a problem with George Bush's Iraq strategy, or lack thereof, you are making a "dangerous blunder" and appeasing Osama bin Laden, per Mr. 20% himself, Dick Cheney.

Of course, that's utterly ridiculous. The two men in America who put a smile on Osama bin Laden's face every day are the two men who haven't caught him in 6 years, and who do everything in their power on a daily basis to help him recruit even more terrorists. Those men are named Dick and George.

Excerpts from Cheney's interview today on the GOP propaganda organ:

...if we were to follow their guidance — the comments, for example, that a lot of them made during the last campaign about withdrawing U.S. forces — we simply go back and revalidate the strategy that Osama bin Laden has been following from day one, that if you kill enough Americans, you can force them to quit, that we don't have the stomach for the fight. That's not an answer....

The most dangerous blunder here would be if, in fact, we took all of that effort that's gone in to fighting the global war on terror and the great work that we have done in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia and across the globe out there and saw it dissipated because the United States now decides that Iraq is too tough and we're going to pack it in and go home. And we leave high and dry those millions of people in their part of the world that have signed on in support of the U.S. or supported governments that are allied with the U.S. in this global conflict.

This is an existential conflict.

Oh, it's an existential conflict. Well why didn't you say so in the first place? Read the rest of this post...

Rice competes with herself on Mideast mission

Last night, AP posted two article by the same reporter within the span of six minutes. Condi is at odds with herself. If we're escalating the war in Iraq and further destabilizing the region by engaging Iran, it's kinda hard to be arbiters of peace. Isn't that pretty obvious? No wonder our foreign policy is such a mess:



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GOP "scared spitless" over war politics. Not the war. The politics of the war. So spineless.

According to South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune (who was elected in 2004 with help from a gay male prostitute), Republicans on Capitol Hill are "scared spitless":

And leaving Republican leaders confronting the reality that nervous party members, uncertain of Mr. Bush’s handling of the war and their own party’s legislative appeal, are no longer so tightly bound to the cause.

“Everybody is scared spitless,” Mr. Thune, the South Dakota senator, said.

Scared spitless because they might lose their seats. What a bunch of wimps. Here's an idea for Thune and his fellow Republicans: Spend some time in Bush's war in Baghdad. Not in the protected Green Zone, but on the front line. If you're lives -- not your political careers -- were on the line, then, you might be legitimately scared spitless.

Instead, you're all scared spitless because you've all been spineless -- supporting Bush's war without question. Pathetic. Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Topic A is obviously the war in Iraq/Iran. The White House has the pro-escalation spin team, Cheney, Hadley, Lieberman, McCain and McConnell, on the shows today. At least everyone but Fox, of course, offers the opposing -- and widely held -- anti-escalation perspective. Since Cheney gets the whole show, would be great if someone on Fox could at least get some real answers (like are we at war with Iran?):

FOX NEWS SUNDAY (WTTG), 9 a.m.: Vice President Cheney.

THIS WEEK (ABC, WJLA), 9 a.m.: Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.); national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley; California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R); Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin (D).

NEWSMAKERS (C-SPAN), 10 a.m.: Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.)

FACE THE NATION (CBS, WUSA), 10:30 a.m.: Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).

MEET THE PRESS (NBC, WRC), 10:30 a.m.: Hadley; Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.).

LATE EDITION (CNN), 11 a.m.: Sens. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.); Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz; Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari; Gen. Richard B. Myers, former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman.

If you can stand watching them, provide the commentary. Read the rest of this post...

A few well placed financial contributions always seem to work well

What happens when a former accounting firm splits off it's consulting division and then loses customers and falls months and months behind on their own accounting and are threatened to be de-listed from the NYSE? They suck on the teat of the government and make hundreds of millions in the so-called war on terror, offering consulting services to new governments for creating competitive business markets all while becoming the number one corporate campaign contributor to the GOP to ensure juicy contracts that they've had written for themselves, naturally. Oh the irony. The new GOP and their supporters are just the old Soviet Union, but with better suits. Read the rest of this post...

Most Americans Pentagon and CIA spied on were innocent

This is intended to make us feel better. These people are beyond amazing.

Usually, the financial documents collected through the letters do not establish any links to espionage or terrorism and have seldom led to criminal charges, military officials say. Instead, the letters often help eliminate suspects.

Yes, because we wouldn't want most of the Americans they're spying on to be guilty. No, it's much better that the Pentagon and the CIA are spying on Americans who are totally innocent, and the entire enterprise apparently seldom leads to criminal charges. So, why are they doing it? Because they can. Read the rest of this post...

The Pentagon and the CIA are looking at Americans' bank records

And, I know you'll find this surprising, but they're doing it without court orders.

Welcome to the Soviet Union. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Caught "Hair" on TV tonight. Really good. I'd forgotten how good it was. Missed the last 15 minutes though. I'm guessing we won. Read the rest of this post...