Another open thread

I'm off to bed. Read the rest of this post...

Daily Ciro

Help elect a real Democrat in Texas. Read the rest of this post...

Bush kills miners

What else to title this article?

This is Republicanism in action, folks. There's no way to sugar coat it. You vote Republican, this is what you get - people who favor corporations over people. Republicans alway say they're going to cut back on federal regulations, so no one should be surprised when they do.

Just imagine what our country is going to look like if yet another Republican wins the presidency in 2008.

You vote for it, you own it. It's time the American voter takes responsibility for his and her own vote. You elected these guys, and they're doing what they told you they'd do. If you don't like it, then stop voting Republican. Read the rest of this post...

How do you not respond to this paragraph with disdain?

From AP

Islamic anger toward the West over cartoons published in Europe depicting the prophet Mohammad have helped to build even more sympathy in the region for bin Laden.

At some point this Islamic cartoon crap is going to really start pissing me off. Okay, it already has. When the controversy started, I was somewhat sympathetic to the Muslims who were offended. But at this point, I'm starting to just get annoyed with the entire issue. To wit, this latest from AP. They're going to harbor Osama because Denmark published one cartoon? Give me a break.

This is as bad as America's religious right threatening a boycott every time their Fruit Loops are soggy. Both our and their religious wingers aren't coming off very well. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Blogging event in NYC tomorrow, Thursday, night. Check it out.

And don't forget to take the AMERICAblog reader survey - and on question #23 please write AMERICAblog so that we can get specific survey results for our readers. Thanks. Take the survey here. Read the rest of this post...

Report suggests Al Qaeda has infiltrated the United Arab Emirates government, as early as 2002

So there you have it. Bush did no review whatsoever for the Dubai ports deal, just like he did no review in picking Harriet Miers for the support court, did no review in picking whats-his-name for the Homeland Security job (remember, Bernie Kerik), just like he does everything.

Bush thinks he knows better than the rest of us, than his own staff, than the experts, so he just plods ahead and screws everything up. Exept now his screw ups are literally risking our lives.

How much longer can this presidency be allowed to continue? Read the rest of this post...

Video of Bush being warned about levees breaching, Superdome being insufficient and storm being outrageously large

C&L; has the video. It's bad. The Associated Press, which put together the video story, all but calls Bush a liar. Read the rest of this post...

New video shows Bush was warned levees could breach BEFORE Katrina hit - Bush lied when he said no one could imagine levees breaching

Oh my God. The Associated Press obtained video tapes and transcripts showing Bush and Chertoff being briefed, the day BEFORE Katrina hit, and both Bush and Chertoff were told that the New Orleans levees could breach - a briefing that Bush outright DENIED having been given. Bush said days after the hurricanethat NO ONE could have imagined the levees being breached:

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees"

When in fact, Bush had been briefed on that very potentiality the DAY BEFORE the hurricane hit.

In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.

Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

He didn't ask a single question.

George Bush is not competent enough to be president of the United States. If another September 11 is being planned right now, we are dead as a nation with this man in charge. It is seriously time that Republicans joined Democrats in figuring out what to do about this man, because he is putting all of our lives in danger.

And get this, then-FEMA chief Michael Brown warned Bush that it wasn't clear they'd be able to evacuate the Superdome, which ended up being true - BUSH KNEW:

A top hurricane expert voiced "grave concerns" about the levees and then-Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown told the president and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that he feared there weren't enough disaster teams to help evacuees at the Superdome.

Read the rest of this post...

BREAKING: BUSH KNEW ALL ABOUT KATRINA THREAT

AP has the full report, and it's SHOCKING. When George Bush went on TV and said no one could imagine the levies breaching, he was flat out lying. He was personally briefed on it - days before Katrina hit. I'm sure John will have his expanded take on this... Read the rest of this post...

Cong. King says Bush admin. did NOT investigate UAE company's ties to Al Qaeda

In an interview at the start of the "Situation Room" with CNN's Ed Henry, Congressman Peter King, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said that the Bush administration did not investigate whether the UAE company had ties to terror. King said there was "no investigation into terror whatsovever." According to Henry, King maintained that he had asked officials at Treasury and Homeland Security whether they had checked out whether the company had ties to Al Qaeda. The response was to King was "You don't understand. We don't conduct a thorough investigation."

I had to watch this piece a couple times...and made John watch it, too. This is insane. The President is determined to enact this port security deal but we don't even know if there are Al Qaeda ties.

The Bush administration is on the verge of turning over port security to a foreign country which is bad enough. It is downright criminal that the Bush team did not check out if that company had Al Qaeda ties...especially given UAE's history with Al Qaeda. Read the rest of this post...

AOL wants to tax email

Supremely greedy idea. I'm with Markos, if AOL does this, they'd better watch their back. Read the rest of this post...

Iraq's deadly chaos continues to grow

Every day, every hour, it becomes clearer that Iraq has moved closer to a full blown civil war. According to AP, Bush told the Iraqis they "must choose 'chaos or unity'". Looks like the choice is chaos:

Bombings in Baghdad killed 26 people, and four others died when mortar rounds slammed into their homes in a nearby town Wednesday, the second day of surging violence after authorities lifted a curfew that briefly calmed sectarian attacks.

A spokesman for the powerful Association of Muslim Scholars criticized the Shiite-led government for failing to protect Iraqis, and he urged Sunnis to defend their mosques.

"All evidence has proven that the government and its security forces are incapable of taking any action," said Abdul-Salam al-Kubaisi, a spokesman for the Sunni clerical group.

Al-Kubaisi denied Sunnis were behind the latest attacks, saying Shiite politicians and religious leaders were trying to inflame sectarian hatred "to make use of these events and everything in this country to achieve one goal - to serve their future interests."

Read the rest of this post...

Take our reader survey please

Once a year the folks at blogads run a reader survey for the blogs. The survey is incredibly important. Please take a minute and fill it out.

It gives us a sense of who visits AMERICAblog, and political blogs more generally, and that's important for two reasons. First, the better data we have on what kind of people read our blog, the more ads we can sell, and that helps keep us around. Second, it's important that we let the world (read: media and politicians) know that our reader base is quite diverse, intelligent and interesting, rather than a bunch of screaming teenagers, which is how they like to portray us/you.

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Thanks, JOHN Read the rest of this post...

Republicans are openly distancing themselves from Bush

This is great news. They're starting to fall apart. Mostly because of the bad poll numbers for Bush, which are in turn due to George Bush simply not being up to the job as president AND the public now fully realizing that fact.

I've said before that George Bush didn't win either presidential election, in 2000 or 2004. And no, I'm not talking about his stealing the election. I'm talking about the fact that far from receiving a mandate, most Americans didn't vote FOR Bush, they voted, rather, against Gore (to some degree) and against Kerry (to a large degree).

Most Americans have never loved George Bush. He comes across as a nice enough guy - well, he CAME across as a nice enough guy, but now is seemingly increasingly arrogant, and worse yet, much more arrogant than is deserved by someone who is kind of dumb and klutzy. Of course, in Bush's case, the klutziness expresses itself in half-baked wars and losing entire American cities.

No one was particularly impressed with Bush the first time around, and they liked him even less in 2004, but again, Al Gore and John Kerry didn't give the voters much of an alternative, so they stuck with Bush, even though by 2004 most certainly, most Americans neither liked the guy nor wanted him to continue in office.

Thus the germ of today's problem for Bush. The majority of Americans now realize that the emperor has no clothes, and that he doesn't have much of a brain either. They were willing to tolerate Bush as a caretaker president of sorts so long as things were going well - in the aftermath of September 11, people wanted comfort, and after initially running and hiding all day, Bush provided that comfort. People wanted revenge, and Bush attacked Afghanistan. Iraq was a bit more nebulous, but people were willing to give Bush the benefit of the doubt. But now that Iraq has become a total disaster, in addition to the public realizing they were pretty much lied to - that, coupled with Bush now having lost an entire American city - people are finally fed up.

Or rather than fed up, they're worried.

They finally fully realize that their caretaker isn't up to the job. But what do they do? First, they voted for the guy, and as bad as he is, the public is still a bit defensive about taking responsibility for having elected a failure, so they get testy when challenged directly on their vote. But, they very much realize now that even though Bush has 3 more years in office, he's now proven he can't handle the job and the country is going to go to hell if we have 3 more years of unrestrained George Bush.

Then there's the Congress - traditionally the body that provides a check on the presidency. But in this case, both the US House and the US Senate are run by Republicans, they have the majority. And that means, somewhat understandably, that the Republicans in Congress don't want to beat up on their own guy in the White House, no matter how bad a job he's doing.

Thus the only solution is to get someone in Congress who can provide some checks and balances vis-a-vis the White House - and that means, electing a Democratic majority to the Congress in the fall.

Voting for a Democratic Congress, whether you like it or not, is the only way to put a check on George Bush's power and mishaps. At the same time, if you're not so keen on Democrats, having a Republican in the White House will also provide a check on Democrats in Congress.

But as things currently stand, Republicans control the White House, Supreme Court (7 of 9 judges are Republican), the US Senate and the US House. There is literally no one able and willing to keep George Bush in line, to stop his hair-brained schemes before they turn into more Katrinas and more Iraqs and more Dubai port deals.

The only way to rein George Bush in, to ensure that he doesn't continue to hurt the country more than he already has, is to vote against Republican members of Congress in the coming congressional elections this November. Vote against Republicans, vote for Democrats - it's the only chance we have to put a protective bubble around George Bush so he doesn't hurt anyone else. Read the rest of this post...

There is no distance between Bush and the Hill GOPers

Some of those weak Hill Republicans, who have marched in lock-step with Bush for the past six years, now claim they want a little distance. That 34% approval is freaking them out...because they are realizing it's true. Bush is their albatross. They own him. They made him. And despite their attempts to spin a distance, there is no distance:

The signs of GOP discontent have been building in the past few months. Dissident Republicans in Congress forced Bush to sign a measure banning torture of detainees despite his initial veto threat, blocked renewal of the USA Patriot Act until their civil liberties concerns were addressed and pressured the White House into accepting legislation on its secret eavesdropping program. By the time the port deal came to light, the uprising was no longer limited to dissidents.

"We simply want to participate and aren't going to be PR flacks when they need us," [Congressman Mark] Foley said. "We all have roles. We have oversight. When you can't answer your constituents when they have legitimate questions . . . we can't simply do it on trust."

What a joke. The Republicans on the Hill have been nothing but flacks for Bush. The Bush/Rove wish is their command.

That quote by Foley is one of the few times any GOPer has even used the term "oversight." They may "have oversight" but that doesn't mean they do oversight. Most of the GOPers in the Capitol don't even know what oversight is.

Bush has rolled the Republicans over and over. That's why the Hill Republicans have an ownership in the disaster that is the Bush agenda. Because really, it is a shared Republican agenda. The litany of failures -- including Iraq, Katrina, Afghanistan, port security, the deficit, domestic spying, Medicare drugs -- belong to both Bush and the Republican majorities on the Hill.

We're stuck with Bush until 2008. The only way to stop the spiral is to end the GOP majorities on the Hill. Read the rest of this post...

Foreign Policy by Surprise Visits and Photo Ops

Dropping in for a "surprise" visit doesn't get much more than a photo op, but that's what the Bush administration is all about. Just look at what's happened in Iraq since the "surprise" visit there in November 2003.

Bush's trip was a glorified ribbon cutting to open the new American embassy. He ignored the reality in Afghanistan:

The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency told Congress Tuesday that the insurgency in Afghanistan is growing and will increase this spring, presenting a greater threat to the central government's expansion of authority "than at any point since late 2001."

"Despite significant progress on the political front, the Taliban-dominated insurgency remains a capable and resilient threat," Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples said in a statement presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee at its annual hearing on national security threats.

Appearing with Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte, Maples said attacks within Afghanistan were up 20 percent between 2004 and 2005, suicide bombings increased "almost fourfold" and use of makeshift bombs, similar to those used in Iraq, had "more than doubled."

Great. Sounds like whatever it is we created in Iraq is spreading to Afghanistan. I don't think that was the plan.

Didn't we invade Afghanistan to get Bin Laden "dead or alive"? Read the rest of this post...

Good morning open thread

Uh oh, Joe is sleeping in today it seems... Read the rest of this post...

100,000 welcome Bush to India

Dear Leader remains as popular as ever around the world. Remember, he's a uniter, not a divider.

"Whether Hindu or Muslim, the people of India have gathered here to show our anger. We have only one message Â? killer Bush go home," one of the speakers, Hindu politician Raj Babbar, told the crowd.

Read the rest of this post...

68 killed in Baghdad since curfew lifted

And Bush thinks this is going well. If it's going so well, perhaps he can lead a victory parade through Baghdad and see for himself how well it's going. Read the rest of this post...

Iraq mess could lead to regional war

So much for our having promoted democracy in Iraq and the Middle East. Seems that playing God thing still doesn't work after millenia of overly-proud leaders trying. Congratulations, Mr. President, you may have effectively destabilized the entire Middle East, and therefore the world. Read the rest of this post...