Will these freshman Democrats be responsible for giving Bush a blank check on Iraq?

Will these freshmen Democrats vote for changing the course in Iraq, or for giving George Bush a blank check to continue inflaming indefinitely this disaster of a civil war?

We already know that some of these freshmen, like Chris Carney and Heath Shuler and Joe Donnelly and Brad Ellsworth, are spineless gay-bashers who are willing to sell out the people who put them into office simply because the religious right, who never even voted them, filled their offices with phone calls. But tomorrow we'll find out if Chris Carney, Heath Shuler, Joe Donnelly, Brad Ellsworth and the rest of the freshmen (and conservative) Dems are Bush-lovers who agree with Mr. 28% that the war in Iraq is going great and that our soldiers should stay indefinitely, paying with their lives while the Iraqi parliament goes on vacation.

Call these freshmen Democrats and tell them to do their jobs, do not give Bush a blank check on Thursday with the Iraq war supplemental. You can find their office numbers here (use the links at the top of the House site), call now and fill their phone lines (and use this link to find the Blue Dog (aka conservative) Democrats and give them a piece of your mind as well):

Yvette Clark
Bruce Braley
Dave Loebsack
Carol Shea-Porter
Paul Hodes
Jerry McNerney
John Yarmuth
Gabby Giffords
John Hall
Keith Ellison
Mazie Hirono
Steve Cohen
John Sarbanes
Phil Hare
Peter Welch
Nancy Boyda
Joe Courtney
Betty Sutton
Chris Murphy
Patrick Murphy
Albio Sires
Ron Klein
Kathy Castor
Tim Mahoney
Tim Walz
Kirsten Gillibrand
Hank Johnson
Jason Altmire
Steve Kagen
Brad Ellsworth
Baron Hill
Joe Donnelly
Heath Shuler
Joe Sestak
Ed Perlmutter
Zack Space
Harry Mitchell
Nick Lampson
Mike Arcuri
Charlie Wilson
Chris Carney Read the rest of this post...

BREAKING: Conservative Dems expected to vote with GOP to give Bush unfettered blank check on Iraq tomorrow

It's time to replace some conservative Democrats in Washington, DC. I just heard from an impeccable source that there is serious concern on the Hill that conservative Democrats in the House will vote with the Republicans to strip any and all restrictions from the Iraq supplemental tomorrow, effectively giving Bush all the money he wants with no restrictions and no effort to hold either him or the Iraq government accountable for anything. I.e., they will vote to continue this war along the same disastrous course because they're too afraid to challenge George Bush and his failed leadership.

Let me reiterate: This isn't some idle rumor. The concerns are coming from Hill sources themselves.

Yes, while the Republican leaders of the House and Senate are publicly claiming that they won't give Bush a blank check, they're maneuvering behind the scenes to do just that. And while Republican members of Congress are supposedly laying down the law for Bush in private meetings, on the House floor they're going to give Bush everything he wants and needs to continue the war indefinitely.

If that happens, then we need to hang this war, and hang every lost life and every wasted dollar, around the neck of every Republican and conservative Democrat who betrays our troops and our country tomorrow.

Please call your member of Congress and raise unholy hell. Tell them that they'd better vote against giving Bush a blank check when the Iraq supplemental comes up for a vote tomorrow. You can call now and leave a message on their machines. You can find your rep via the House Web site, use the zip code box in the upper left hand corner to find your rep. Read the rest of this post...

Iraqi Parliament Speaker slams Pelosi, says two-month vacation will go ahead

Not very smart.

Iraq's maverick parliament speaker [Mahmoud al-Mashhadani] on Wednesday rejected U.S. criticism of the 275-seat legislature over its summer break plans, saying it amounted to unacceptable interference in Iraqi affairs as Vice President Dick Cheney was expected to take up the issue during a visit to Baghdad....

In a barb at the Bush administration, he said those behind the criticism of Iraq's parliament would make better use of their time trying to counter criticism by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who is leading a campaign against U.S. President George W. Bush's handling of the war in Iraq.

"You had better try and control Nancy Pelosi rather than Mahmoud al-Mashhadani," the speaker said....

A recess starting from July may leave several crucial pieces of U.S.-supported legislation unfinished, including a bill for distributing oil revenue and another designed to cement national reconciliation....

"Certainly taking a two-month vacation will have an effect on passing some important laws," Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker, said last week. "We can stay if we feel that this is very important, but I think that the worries by the congressmen are premature. Moreover, they themselves take vacation."

Yeah, well we're not in the middle of a civil war being financed by someone else's blood and money, you ungrateful ass. Read the rest of this post...

11 GOP congressmen meet Bush, lay down the law on Iraq

The GOP revolt over Iraq is growing.

"One congressman said: 'How can our daughters and sons spill their blood while the Iraqi parliament goes on vacation?'"

Read the rest of this post...

Bush's new "Iraq funding" veto threat makes no sense

Bush is today claiming that the new Iraq funding bill being considered in the House will be disastrous for our military. The House is proposing that they fund the surge through July (i.e., half of Bush's total request), and then Congress votes in July on the second half of the money after Bush has reported back to the country on just how well the surge is, or isn't, doing. Bush is now claiming that if he doesn't get all the money in advance, it will cause havoc with the defense contractors' long-term planning. But this doesn't make any sense - it flies in the face of how the war funding has been handled for the past five and a half years. As you know, Bush has never put the war on budget because he doesn't want the American people to understand fully just how expensive his increasingly disastrous adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan have been. Instead, Bush has submitted piecemeal, incremental funding legislation, providing a few billion here and there to fund the war effort. How did defense contractors plan then? They seemed to do just fine. But we're to believe that THIS time passing an incremental bill will be "disastrous." Why? Why is it any different now than during the past four years?

It's not.

We're being lied to again.

And one more point. Bush and Gates and his generals keep saying that we could start withdrawing the troops as early as this fall if everything goes well. But isn't that adding uncertainty to the defense contractors contracting process, knowing that the way might not even exist come this fall if everything goes well? You don't hear Bush telling us how disastrous that uncertainty is for the war effort (probably because we know he's lying about there being any chance in hell of a withdrawal this fall, or next fall for that matter). Read the rest of this post...

Don't forget to take our blog reader survey

It's long and tedious, you'll love it!

No, seriously, it's a necessary evil so that we can tell politicians, the media, and our advertisers just who the heck you all are. Only the first couple of pages of the survey are important, you can skip the rest if you're not into answering questions about dental floss and bourbon (but if you are...). We've already had nearly 7,000 of you respond, which is great since that's a good 8% of our readers or more. Oh and one more thing, if you've already taken the survey on another blog, then there's no need to take it on my blog, and vice versa.

You can take the survey here, and thanks. Read the rest of this post...

Giuliani wants to cut taxes and cut the size of the federal government

Because if we've learned anything during the Bush years it's that we simply have too much of a budget surplus and those quaint old government agencies like FEMA and the FDA aren't really necessary any more.

Rudy Giuliromney, he's really a conservative. Today. More from the Washington Post. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Another gorgeous day. Read the rest of this post...

Bush threatening yet another veto, he wants all the money NOW

Funny, but that has nothing to do with the commanders on the ground having the control they need. Remember, that was why he vetoed the bill before. Apparently now we have another reason. What a surprise. Now Bush is just being a whiny baby. He wants all of the money NOW. He doesn't want Congress to give him half now and half later, which would enable the American people to ensure that Bush is spending their money wisely. Would it endanger the troops to get half the money now? No. Does it hamper the commanders on the ground to get half the money now? No. Bush is simply a whiny, incompetent child who hasn't proposed any kind of compromise whatsoever. Sure, it might inconvenience Halliburton and Dick Cheney's other filthy rich war-profiteering buddies if they have to wait two months before being assured of their autumn windfall profits, but Halliburton's profits shouldn't be the primary concern here. Bush simply proposes vetoes because that's all he knows how to do, say no. He wants all the money, no strings attached, so he can waste it all again and again and again on his corporate buddies while our troops continue to die for a lost cause.

The Democrats in Congress are trying to find a way to hold the president accountable to the people, to make this war work, and to ultimately get us the hell out of Iraq - Bush is more interested in playing a game of chicken, with no intent of compromising on anything. To him it's all a game where winning the political battle is far more important than winning the real battle on the ground in Iraq.

It's time to take away the spoiled child's car keys. Read the rest of this post...

General to Congress: Bush put our nation in peril. Act now to protect our soldiers

Powerful new ad from VoteVets.org:

Our ads are airing in states and districts of those Members of Congress who are very close to breaking with the President on Iraq, and joining the troops and American people. They are:Senators Susan Collins, John Sununu, John Warner, and Norm Coleman, and Representatives Mary Bono, Phil English, Randy Kuhl, Jim Walsh, Heather Wilson, Jo Ann Emerson, Tim Johnson, Mike Rogers, Fred Upton, and Mike Castle:

Read the rest of this post...

Missing the point

I continue to believe, basically, that movement conservatives want the media to be more conservative while movement progressives want the media to be more accurate. Progressive media critics (which range from bloggers to institutions to individual TV viewers) want the media to get it right, be fair, and use facts to point out lies; conservatives want to be martyrs and won't be satisfied until Glen Beck and Brit Hume are considered moderates on the teevee. So there are different types of media criticism on either side of the partisan aisle.

Which is why I have no problem highlighting an example of media idiocy against a Republican. This ridiculous article asks whether Fred Thompson's brief television role as a white supremacist 19 years ago will affect his presidential run. What?!? The story is breathlessly written, and sets up one side of the argument as if the other side is coming . . . but it never does:

His colleagues say that he was just an actor putting everything he had into playing the role of a charismatic racist

That makes it sound like somebody else (i.e., someone not "his colleagues") will have a different view, but nobody ever does! The reporter apparently couldn't even find "an anonymous Democratic operative" stupid enough to claim that a two-decade-old fictional role would (let alone should) affect Thompson's candidacy.

The reporter does dredge up a USC professor to claim that, "Now actors who have political aspirations will have to go through every single line of every part they played to make sure there's nothing they need to explain or apologize for." Except, there's no proof that's actually true. What kind of serious observer would propose such a thing? Will there eventually be YouTube clips using this? Sure, probably. Will it matter in the slightest? Almost certainly not.

And what, according to the reporter, compounds the problem of this role? "Thompson is too good an actor and looks too convincing in the part." Fred Thompson: Too good an actor! You cannot make this stuff up.

I clearly have no problem with the media criticizing Republicans, or any powerful person who does or says something stupid. But this kind of thing degrades the media generally and brings down everyone's faith in reportage. There are plenty of things legitimately wrong with Republicans -- for goodness sake, Romney recently declared war on a massively popular political party that has renounced violence due to his apparently limitless stupidity about Islam and the Middle East -- and I'd love to hear about those instead of seeing silly, irrelevant hit jobs that only become fodder for the mistaken idea that the media tilts left. Read the rest of this post...

"Last throes" Cheney is on an "unannounced" visit to Baghdad

The Dick is in Baghdad. "Unannounced" visit, apparently they've stopped calling these jaunts "surprises":

Cheney's unannounced visit, part of a Middle East tour, may signal growing U.S. impatience at Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's failure to push through power-sharing agreements as American military commanders build up troops to secure Baghdad.

"There is a lot going on. It's an important time. There is a lot to talk about," Cheney said before meeting with General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Guess Dick won't be strolling around Baghdad being greeted as a liberator, because that's what he said would happen back in March of 2003. And, in September of 2003, he said most Iraqis were greeting our soldiers as liberators:

MR. RUSSERT: We have not been greeted as liberated.

VICE PRES. CHENEY: Well, I think we have by most Iraqis. I think the majority of Iraqis are thankful for the fact that the United States is there, that we came and we took down the Saddam Hussein government. And I think if you go in vast areas of the country, the Shia in the south, which are about 60 percent of the population, 20-plus percent in the north, in the Kurdish areas, and in some of the Sunni areas, you’ll find that, for the most part, a majority of Iraqis support what we did.

Yeah, sure, Dick. Liar.

Two years ago, Dick was predicting an end to the insurgency. He's been wrong -- or lied -- about everything related to Iraq. Everything:

"The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

If what Dick said about Iraq was true, he'd be parading through downtown Baghdad instead of sneaking in to the country on yet another unannounced visit. Every time one of our leaders skulks in to that country, it's another admission of their failure. Read the rest of this post...

Military: The surge is never ending

What a surprise. Now the surge of only 21,000 troops - now 30,000 troops - is a permanent escalation that may last to the end of Bush's term. In other words, Bush is running out the clock, he has no intention of ever leaving Iraq, and plans on handing his disaster off to the next president. This is atrocious.

From the Wash Post:

U.S. commanders in Iraq are increasingly convinced that heightened troop levels, announced by President Bush in January, will need to last into the spring of 2008....

"The surge needs to go through the beginning of next year for sure," said Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the day-to-day commander for U.S. military operations in Iraq. The new requirement of up to 15-month tours for active-duty soldiers will allow the troop increase to last until spring...

So now the end of the summer surge is being moved back another six months to next spring. So that way the Bush administration won't have to say how things are going this fall, they can wait until a year from now when they'll tell us that we have to wait another six months before they can tell us how things are going on in Iraq.

The Republicans are killing our troops in Iraq, wasting 100s of billions of dollars a year, destroying our military, putting the civil defense at home at risk in places like Kansas that face their own disasters, and they plan to continue this war indefinitely.

The Republicans want to continue this war forever. The only people talking about getting out of Iraq are the Democrats. Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Nothing like a little gay-bashing in the morning to start my day just right. I got up early today to head to breakfast with a friend before going to hear Arianna speak at Georgetown. And my radio went off at 7:30am and was set to DC 101, the local rock station. The DJ is named Elliot, the show "Elliot in the Morning." Well, in about ten minutes, I got to listen to about ten different fag jokes (he just made another one, that would be 25 minutes of gay jokes now). Oh, he didn't say the word "fag," he just made repeated jokes about gays, said how something was "so gay," and then proceeded to ask if famed interior designer Nate Berkus was "hoo hoo." When his sidekick said "yes, his partner Fernando was killed during the tsunami in Asia," Elliot responded, "I love that song! Ha ha ha!" He then proceeded to play the Abba song Fernando, cackling the whole way through. Get it, Nate's dead partner was named Fernando so that'll be the latest in a string of gay jokes this morning - dead Fernando. Ha ha ha ha ha.

I know there are bigger issues out there, but you know, the hate in our culture, from CNN host Glenn Beck to Don Imus to Rush Limbaugh's "Barack the Magic Negro" to fag jokes to the religious right's non-stop attacks on gays, to the Bush administration's non-stop attack on people like Mary Cheney, it just doesn't stop. And people wonder where hate comes from. It comes from the culture at large. We mock people, we belittle them, we make fun of them for being "hoo hoo," we mock their dead loves ones, we mock presidential candidates for being "negroes," and we wonder why kids grow up to be hateful.

Congrats, DC 101. You guys are pigs. Read the rest of this post...

CNN Poll: 57% of Americans support Democrats on Iraq

Americans want a timetable to get out of Iraq.

Most Americans disagree with President Bush's decision last week to veto the war funding bill that contained a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

What do they think Congress should do now?

Former Sen. John Edwards said Congress shouldn't back down. "If we don't have the votes to override the veto, the Congress should send him another bill with the funding authority for the troops, with a timetable for withdrawal," the Democratic presidential candidate said.

The public agrees. In the new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Tuesday, 57 percent want Congress to pass another bill with funding and timetables.

Read the rest of this post...

Senate panel approves fuel efficiency program

Coming as no surprise to anyone, Republican enablers and Big Auto is crying about the push to become both competitive and environmentally friendly. Apparently Big Auto and the GOP managed to overlook the tens of thousands of lost jobs due to massive corporate failure, incompetence and smear campaigns, so that card has already been played. What other industry can fail to improve efficiency despite technology advancements that are obviously working elsewhere in the world?

The US offers two cars (Prius and Civic hybrid) with average mileage of 40mpg whereas Europe offers 113. The European market has been able to offer fuel efficiency, so why not in America? Why does Big Auto hate America? Read the rest of this post...