Open thread

Have we won yet? Read the rest of this post...

Rather interesting look at liberal blogs from The New Republic

A huge article looking at the impact of liberal blogs on politics. A really well thought out and reasoned piece, I think. Can't even begin to summarize it, it's big. Take a look. Read the rest of this post...

Bush to troops...

Anyone else seeing a pattern?

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At 6:10 pm tonight, this will be Bush's message to the American people

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Get this. Bush warns that DEMOCRATS could turn Iraq into chaotic breeding ground for terrorists.

Unlike what George Bush and the Republicans have already turned Iraq into - utter chaos and the number one training ground for Al Qaeda terrorists in the world, per the CIA.

Hours before vetoing a war spending bill, President Bush said Tuesday that Democrats who made the legislation a showdown over withdrawing U.S. troops could turn Iraq into a terror-spreading "cauldron of chaos" with their approach.

The guy is simply a liar. A dumb as a post, messianic liar. And actually, it's worse than that. The White House knows Iraq is lost. They're simply trying to run out the clock so that when the next president takes over they can say "Iraq was going great until YOU took it over." Read the rest of this post...

Hate Crimes vote coming up in the House

The House will soon vote on whether other Americans deserve to be included in the federal hate crimes laws that already are on the books and already cover the religious right (current law covers race, religion and national origin). More on the law, and the liars opposing it, from HRC:



And big surprise, the religious right Christian Republicans have been caught LYING AGAIN in an effort to kill this amendment. What a surprise. The self-proclaimed voices of God breaking every commandment they can think of in order to promote their bigotry and their hatred. Read the rest of this post...

Bush will veto Iraq bill today

Reuters:

Bush to veto Iraq spending bill, will make statement at 6:10 pm ET: White House

Yep, he's vetoing the bill on Mission Accomplished Day. Priceless. Read the rest of this post...

Let's play "Name that world leader"

From the NYT:

The commission accused him of having decided hastily to go to war, neglecting to ask for a detailed military plan, refusing to consult outside the army and setting “over-ambitious and unobtainable goals.”

His name would be... George Bush?! No. Well, yes, this clearly does apply to Bush - but in fact, it's a new report about the Israeli Prime Minister's ill-fated venture into Lebanon. And in Israel, unlike America, when the head of state screws up a war, his cabinet members start to resign (rather than publicly defend him and then later write "oops" books) and the head of state himself has to publicly explain why he shouldn't have to resign.

Must be nice to live in a real democracy. Read the rest of this post...

"He won the war!"

Oops. Revisiting "Mission Accomplished" day, from E&P;:

Today marks the fourth anniversary of President Bush’s jet landing on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and his speech declaring major fighting in Iraq over, all in front of a giant “Mission Accomplished” banner.

At the time, it was heralded by the mainstream media as a fitting moment of triumph. "He won the war," boomed MSNBC's Chris Matthews. "He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics."....

When Bush spoke, the U.S. had 150,000 troops in Iraq; the number now stands at 160,000 or more. American casualties at the time were 139 killed and 542 wounded. A year ago they stood at 2,400 killed and now it's 3,300 dead.

Check out this nugget from the NYT at the time:

The president declared an end to major combat operations, White House, Pentagon and State Department officials said, for three crucial reasons: to signify the shift of American soldiers from the role of conquerors to police, to open the way for aid from countries that refused to help militarily and -- above all -- to signal to voters that Mr. Bush is shifting his focus from Baghdad to concerns at home….

''This is the formalization that tells everybody we're not engaged in combat anymore, we're prepared for getting out,'' a senior administration official said….

A lie doesn't get any clearer than that. They lied to us. And 3,000 more US troops are dead as a result. Read the rest of this post...

In 2006, 45% of all terrorist attacks worldwide took place in Iraq

A rather sobering statistic considering the terrorists weren't in Iraq until Bush invaded. More from the Washington Post:

The number of terrorism incidents in Iraq -- and resulting deaths, injuries and kidnappings -- skyrocketed from 2005 to 2006, according to statistics released by U.S. counterterrorism officials yesterday.

Of the 14,338 reported terrorist attacks worldwide last year, 45 percent took place in Iraq, and 65 percent of the global fatalities stemming from terrorism occurred in Iraq. In 2005, Iraq accounted for 30 percent of the worldwide terrorist attacks.

Mission Accomplished! If you're Osama bin Laden. Read the rest of this post...

Bush will get Iraq spending day four years after he declared major combat operations were over

What a difference four years make. Bush and Rove probably figured that by now, this would be a national holiday with glowing commemorations of Bush's triumphant speech on the aircraft carrier. Instead, it's a stark reminder of how George Bush lied to the American people -- and how the traditional media fell for his stunts.

Fortunately, there is some sanity on one end of Pennsylvania Avenue this year:

Democratic leaders in Congress are planning a special ceremony on Tuesday afternoon to send President Bush a bill that sets timetables for troop withdrawal from Iraq.

The timing is no accident. It comes on the fourth anniversary of the day Mr. Bush stood on an aircraft carrier under the banner “Mission Accomplished” and declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended.

The Democrats’ ceremony, featuring the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is part of the elaborate political theater at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue surrounding the Iraq spending bill, which is destined to produce only the second veto of Mr. Bush’s presidency.

But with Mr. Bush planning to spend Tuesday in Florida talking with military commanders, the White House was being coy on Monday about what kind of theatrics of his own — if any — he might stage. Democrats, however, said they expected the veto to come Wednesday.

This isn't about theater. It's about a war that Bush started without a plan. It's about a war where over 3,000 U.S. soldiers died after George Bush said major combat operations were over (only 139 American troops had been killed by "Mission Accomplished" day). We've seen plenty of Bush's theatrics. We need to see some rational thinking and a plan to end the war. Bush and his team should put as much time in to thinking about ending the war as they put in to the theatrics and politics of the war. Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

May 1, 2003, George Bush: "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended."
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Interior Department asked about plans to scrap endangered animal protection

Oh those proposals? Those? Uh, sure, they were old and really a work in progress, or at least since the GOP Congress has been voted out.

An Interior Department spokesman, Hugh Vickery, said the proposed rules the senators questioned were part of an old document not now under consideration. He said the department is looking for recommendations on how to administer the Endangered Species Act more consistently.

Environmental activists raised alarms about the draft rules change last month, saying the revisions would weaken the act so much that about 80 percent of the 1,300 species now on the endangered list would lose protection.

The activists also said government documents they obtained indicate revisions were being made as recently as February.

Q: How do you tell when a GOP political appointee is telling a lie? A: When their lips are moving. I can't wait to hear the Interior Department answer the question about how scraping the protection system benefits endangered wildlife. That's going to be a priceless moment and a response worth saving. Read the rest of this post...

Mmmmm, melamine chicken!

Nobody delivers melamine chicken like the glorious FDA. Once again proving the value of "self regulation" that has been a cornerstone of GOP politics.

The U.S. government said on Monday 38 poultry farms in Indiana were given contaminated feed containing melamine in early February, with some of the animals likely to have entered the food supply.

Since they say it's a "low risk" for humans, let's see the leaders of the FDA eat that tainted glop and then tell us about their own guinea pig experience. Let them eat three eyed fish. Read the rest of this post...

Big Business and SEC would like everyone to forget about Enron

The big push by business and their GOP friends at the SEC to release industry, who wants the trust of the public so they buy their stock, are getting closer to realizing dream of turning back the clock, as though Enron and Worldcom never happened. I remain curious what they find so restrictive since they are also the first ones to tell us how great the economy is and how well Wall Street has been doing. So why change? It's obvious that Wall Street would prefer having SEC rules that are closer to China's food safety laws (and more recently our own beloved FDA) but I think we've been there before and it was ugly.

Unless the SEC industry lapdogs can show something concrete about how business is suffering, there's no reason to change the regulations. If big business is so worried about being competitive, they can step back and look at the comp plans of their friends which stand in stark contrast to most Americans. Now is no time to change these regulations. Read the rest of this post...

Facebook controversy cleared up

I'd posted last night, asking if anyone had any information about a controversy on Facebook regarding the banning of gay user-groups. Fortunately, one of you found an update that the controversy was a hoax. Glad to hear it, thanks for helping to get to the bottom of it, and now we can share the news with others in case they hear about this in the future. It's not real. Read the rest of this post...