Open Thread

Take it through the night. Read the rest of this post...

Mr. 25% threatens Dems over Mukasey

Will the Dems cave now that Bush has called them bad names?

Okay, I made myself laugh. Of course the Democrats will cave because they have no spine. It's time we started setting up some loyalty votes on key issues that matter, and telling Senators, and House members, that if they don't get in line they lose their committee assignments next go around. It's what Gingrich did. And for all his foibles, he wasn't herding the group of useless cats that we call a party. Read the rest of this post...

More from Spain

The blog conference that I'm attending in Caceres, Spain ends today. It's been really interesting to meet "geeks" (or "freaks" which is the Spanish word, believe it or not) and bloggers from other countries who are pretty much like our own home-grown variety. The two geeks, above, Antonio (the blond) and David (the brunet) were representative of the crowd - just very cool, interesting, friendly, and wee bit geeky (just enough).

One of the papers from Barcelona did an interview with me yesterday, you can check it out here if you read Spanish (and I only did half the interview in Spanish, so don't be too impressed - she cleaned up most of it).

Now for a few photos from the conference, and the city. One of the things that really so defined this conference for me was sitting in a workshop on podcasting, looking around the room at the conference attendees sitting in front of their computers trying to learn how use Apple's Garageband audio editing software, and then noticing the 15th century (or so) paintings decorating the walls around us. Sure, they were copies, but the juxtaposition of so much history alongside a class on podcasting just strike me as funny, and moving.



Some things need no translation:



Some new friends from the conference made me get up at 8am (hey, this is Spain, I had to force these folks to let me go home last night at 1am - they stayed out till 3, or 4, or 6). Anyway, we went for Churros y Chocolate. Basically, it's to-die-for hot chocolate that you dip a Spanish version of very long thin donuts in. Basically, it's disgustingly good. Of course, everyone is smoking, which is the curse of this country, just like Greece, and France - but at least in France it's being outlawed next year (though it's been outlawed here too, in restaurants, but for some reason practically every restaurant we go to seems to have received some kind of exemption to the law - it's very strange). I just learned that small restaurants can "choose" whether they want to go non-smoking or not. Of course, small restaurants don't need a law in order to "choose" to go non-smoking - they can do that anyway - so this little provision of the law was a cute way to exempt small restaurants totally (ah, politics doesn't change no matter the language). A small movie of the folks making the churros:



A few of the local inhabitants in the old city.



And finally, the classic southern Europe photo - the local roadblock:

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"Judicial activism" and the threat of terror attacks are Musharraf's excuses to suspend constitution and impose martial law

Sound familiar? Seems like Musharraf used Bush's talking points in the speech last night where he basically declared martial law. "Judicial activism" and the threat from terrorists required Musharraf to overrule the country's constitution. It's difficult for Bush to criticize that when he's done essentially the same thing. Granted, we're not quite at martial law here in the U.S.:

Just after midnight, General Musharraf appeared on state-run television. In a 45-minute speech, he said he had declared the emergency to limit terrorist attacks and “preserve the democratic transition that I initiated eight years back.”

He gave no firm date for nationwide elections that had been scheduled for January and said his current Parliament, which he dominates, would remain in place. He did not say how long the state of emergency would be maintained.

The general, dressed in civilian clothes, quoted Lincoln, citing the former president’s suspension of some rights during the American Civil War as justification for his own state of emergency.

He accused the country’s Supreme Court of releasing 61 men who he said were under investigation for terrorist activities. “Judicial activism,” he said, had demoralized the security forces, hurt the fight against terrorism and slowed the spread of democracy. “Obstacles are being created in the way of democratic process,” he said, “I think for vested, personal interests, against the interest of the country.”

That last part sounds way, way too familiar. Read the rest of this post...

Pakistan, one big freaking mess. Oh yeah, and they've got nukes.

No one could have ever imagined that a dictator would act like a dictator. From AP:

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended Pakistan's constitution and deployed troops in the capital Saturday, declaring that rising Islamic extremism had forced him to take emergency measures. He also replaced the chief justice and blacked out the independent media that refused to support him.

Authorities began rounding up opposition politicians, cut phone lines in Islamabad and took all but state television off air, defying calls from Washington and other Western allies not to take authoritarian measures.

Read the rest of this post...

Factoring the troop surge into a failed war in Iraq

I keep hearing of the recent success stories in Iraq that are attributed to the surge. Of course President Bush will capitalize on this temporary phenomenon with his usual optimism that his plan for Iraq will be successful -- whether he actually believes it or not. His allies in Congress will continue to tout the so called progress along with the Republican presidential candidates going into the 2008 election -- provided it lasts long enough. One thing I'm sure about is that now more than ever we as Americans need to engage in a continuous debate on Iraq that involves a significant amount of critical thinking. Most of all we must lobby our members of Congress to do so as well.

Lets take a look at the reported progress:

- For the first time in years there is a sense of normalcy in Baghdad
- Thousands of Iraqi refugees have returned to a safer Iraq
- Iraqi civilian deaths have dropped to the lowest level this year
- Significant decrease in roadside bomb attacks
- Security operations and control of Karbala turned over to the Iraqis
- A drawdown of US forces in the volatile Diyala province
- Bush declared the drawdown of 20,000 troops (possibly).

Factoring in the bad news:

- 3,850 US troops killed
- Approximately 30,000 US troops wounded
- An uncountable number of Iraqis killed
- A continuous cycle of deadly violence
- Conflicting reports that Iraqi deaths have increased not decreased
- An Iraqi government that is run by religious tribal leaders
- The reemergence of the PKK terrorist organization
- The government of Turkey at war with PKK rebels in northern Iraq
- No halt in the multi-front Iraqi civil war
- An Iraqi security and police force rampant with corruption
- Very little progress toward political reconciliation
- A 50 year US military presence in the Middle East
- The warning of World War III against Iraq's neighboring country of Iran
- And the list goes on and on

The milk is spilled. The damage is done. So where do we go from here?

Congress has demonstrated that we can not rely on them to set aside their bickering, finger pointing, and extreme partisanship to work together in an effort to solve the problem. We as average American people can do nothing short of voting them out of office in the next election.

But will we trade them for leaders who will promise us solutions and deliver nothing like our current members Congress? Quite possibly. That is a very reasonable assumption considering how we are lied to over and over again by politicians in Washington.

To be fair there are many members of Congress who ardently oppose this war, but lack the numbers to bring about change. Sadly, we are stuck in Iraq for a while.

Do we just simply try to balance out the good with the bad in the hopes of breaking even? Is that the best we can hope for? Considering there is any "good."

In order to pacify Iraq it would take at a minimum 350,000 troops. And most likely that would still not be enough. Furthermore, it would never be sustainable because most Americans are unwilling to commit any sacrifice of their own. Especially supporters of the war who fall into the financially "well-to-do" chickenhawk category. They are not even willing to sacrifice their tax cuts to help pay for it. Real American patriots they are (sarcastically said). But oh how quick they are to call me a traitor for my views against a war that I fought that they support but would never have the courage to go and fight themselves.

Do these fools even know what they support and advocate for? We invaded and occupied a country that did not want war with us. A total act of un-American hostile aggression.

I have tried to put aside my strong anti-war beliefs and consider the possibility that Iraq could one day be a better place because of our invasion and continued occupation -- as ridiculous as that sounds. I have tried so many times and thought for many long hours. But I never could find any rationale or logic to convince me that Iraq will ever be a safe and peaceful part of the world because of the war George W. Bush has inflicted upon them.

When I balance out the supposed successes of the surge with the failures of the war as a whole I am just more and more convinced that we just need to give Iraq back to the Iraqi people. After all, it is their country not ours. And furthermore, we owe the Iraqis reparations as well -- for the sake of humanity. I know it won't happen yesterday or tomorrow, but the process must start.

How? In my opinion we must learn from the lesson of the last election. In 2008 we can't allow ourselves to be fooled again. Candidates who want my vote need to do an exceptional job of ensuring me that they will do everything in their power to end the war. It's not until then that we can stop spending all of our political energy on Iraq and start taking care of the problems we face at home.

We have a long road ahead.

Keep up the fight and thank you for reading.

John Bruhns
Iraq Veteran Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Big day on the talk shows: Five Presidential candidates and surprisingly enough there are more Democrats than Republicans; One former President/Father of a President; One top Democratic campaign adviser, Mark Penn, who doubles as a consultant to many non-Democratic industries; and One Democratic Senator, Dianne Feinstein, who continually sells out the Democrats and Democratic ideals by voting for torture and Bush's anti-gay, bigoted judges.

Here's the lineup:

ABC's "This Week" — Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., Mark Penn, chief strategist for Sen. Hillary Clinton campaign.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.

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CNN's "Late Edition" — Mideast peace envoy and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Chris Dodd, D-Conn., Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Former President George H.W. Bush.

There should be plenty of fodder with this crowd. Read the rest of this post...