Sat. Eve Open Thread

Well Mr. President, you've decided that you want to berate the public into supporting you? Accusing the over 60% of Americans who question the mess you made in Iraq of "rewriting history"? Get a grip. And drink this shot you...

S.O.B.

1/2 oz cognac
1/2 oz Cointreau® orange liqueur
1 slice lemon
sugar

Drink this just like a shot of tequila. Mix the cognac and cointreau together in the shot glass. Lick between your thumb and forefinger and sprinkle sugar on it. Then lick the sugar, drink the shot, and suck on the lemon wedge when you're done.

You Texans like tequilla, so I thought it appropriate.

Open thread away. I'm watching Jason Lee and Foo Fighters on Saturday Night Live. Read the rest of this post...

NYC open thread

Off for some Italian (food, that is). Staying with a friend in Chelsea. I really do love this city. Most of my friends who have moved to New York for a while have found they tire of it after a few years. I've never lived here, but would love to try. NY has a buzz for me, like Paris, and certainly Chicago, and perhaps Rome (though Rome's turn-on for me is more the incredible weight of the history all around you). I don't get that feeling from Dc, either the energy buzz or the sense of history. But with NY, every time I come here I feel inspired to write a book, become an actor, plunge myself into my photography, or something else creative. The city just fills me with a yearning, and a motivation, to do great things. Love it.

Of course, my immediate yearning is to eat some eggplant. Read the rest of this post...

Does George Bush think blacks shouldn't be allowed to marry whites or attend white schools?

I want to know. Karl went off a few days ago on those wild "judicial activists" who make law from the bench, so I think it's time we finally asked Bush why he thinks Brown v. Board of Education and Loving v. Virginia were wrongly decided? Both decisions were clearly activist judges making law from the bench when the majority of Americans either nationwide or in specific states wanted nothing to do with the final decision of the court.

The court has always been activist and it's time Republicans explain what is so bad about black people finally being given equal rights in America. Their language is thinly veiled racist code that I think is meant to appeal to their bigoted base. Someone ought to call them on it. Read the rest of this post...

John Edwards in Sunday's Wash Post: I was wrong to vote for the Iraq war

This is a very big deal.

Edwards is saying what far too few Democrats are willing to say. They got tricked into voting for the war in Iraq, and now they regret it. Edwards goes one step farther, taking personal responsibility in any case for his vote. He and Kerry should have done this last year, but it's still good he's doing it now, and it sounds very much to me like this is a man running for president in 2008.

I say this is a big deal because top Democrats are finally willing to say publicly that they screwed up, they should have never voted for this fiasco, while at the same acknowledging that Bush hardly played an insignificant role in tricking the Congress and the American people into supporting this war.

One point Edwards doesn't make very clearly, but I would, is that Congress gave the president the authorization to go to war. They did not give him the authorization to do so incompetently. There's a big difference. You give your doctor permission to conduct a tonsilectomy. You do not, however, give him permission to get drunk and cut off your leg by mistake.

Bush is guilty of military malpractice. No one gave him permission to do a sloppy job. Read the rest of this post...

New Feature - Poll Porn - 26% of Republicans think Cheney is a Liar

Sometimes, the poll numbers get so low it makes me feel extra special good. Cerebral porn perhaps? From Newsweek:

Bush's new approval low of 36 percent in the NEWSWEEK poll equals the low point of Bill Clinton's presidency in May 1993, when the former president hit 36 percent.

Aww yeah, that's what I'm talking about! Show me a little more!

Now is the autumn of Bush's discontent, according to the NEWSWEEK poll, taken by phone of 1,002 Americans over Thursday and Friday nights. The president can take some solace in the fact that 42 percent of Americans believe he is honest and ethical. Only 29 percent believe that Vice President Dick Cheney is. And more than a quarter of Republicans, 26 percent, believe the vice president is not honest and ethical. The growing credibility gap could have ramifications across the president's agenda: 56 percent of Americans say Bush "won't be able to get much done;" only 36 percent say he "can be effective."

Now where's my money shot?

Most worrisome for the White House: the base seems to be cracking. When asked whether anyone in the administration "acted unethically" in the case involving the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name, a 54-percent majority of Americans said they did - and 30 percent of Republicans said they did. And 45 percent of Americans believe someone in the "Bush administration broke the law and acted criminally" - including 22 percent of Republicans.

There it is! The President has officially lost the country.

Clinton had a really rocky start to his administration. Interesting that even through impeachment he never went that low again. Read the rest of this post...

Gay rights opponent defeated by... a gay!

Talk about poetic justice. A LOT of religious right sympathizers lost elections around the country, including this one in Ohio:

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio - A city council member who fought against the nation's first voter-approved domestic partner registry lost a bid for re-election to a candidate who is openly gay.

The Rev. Jimmie Hicks Jr. lost Tuesday's election to Mark Tumeo.

Hicks had sued to block the creation the city's domestic partner registry. The registry, which recognizes gay and unmarried heterosexual couples but gives no legal status or marriage rights, had been approved by voters in 2003 and ruled constitutional by a Cuyahoga County judge....

Hicks said Wednesday his battle "was political suicide."

Did you catch that? A religious right drone says that pushing anti-gay policies is now "political suicide." That is a big deal. And that speaks volumes about how the country has changed in only the past few years. Read the rest of this post...

Violence calming in France

In the past week I have received countless phone calls and emails asking about the reports of rioting in Paris and around France. While it is a very serious problem and the government still does not seem to fully grasp the seriousness of the problem, I can say that for those living in most of Paris and anyone coming from abroad to visit the normal tourist destinations, the problems have been out of site to most. I watched a CNN report the other night and if I was planning to come to Paris from abroad I would have canceled the trip from the sound of things but really, this situation is limited to poor areas which are well outside of any standard tourist desintations. American travel warnings always seem to blow things out of proportion while ignoring everyday high crime rates in the US. Should there be caution? Sure. Panic? Absolutely not.

To that end, this is good and bad. Because the riots and torchings have been in poor out of the way areas, it makes it easier for most to rest safely and know that the riots are waning thanks to a heavy police presence and emergency laws. It's almost too easy to dismiss and go back to normal life and forget about all of this. Politicians are talking about recognizing the problems and making attempts to help but until affirmative action is put in place and we see business and politics representing the actual population and not just the white population, any success in limiting the hostilities will only be short-lived.

The US may still be working on racism but you can walk into an office and see different types of people. You can also look at community leaders and politicians who represent all communities, not just the white people. If you expect to see the same in Europe, despite substantial non-white populations, you will be sadly disappointed. This is the heart of the matter and this has to be addressed. Read the rest of this post...

Off to the Chocolate Show

Who even knew they HAD chocolate shows? AMERICAblog reader Claire kindly emailed me to let me know that in fact they do, and there's a big one in NYC today. I am so there.

Yet another reason to love this town.

As I mentioned, my laptop died on the train to New York, so I'll be posting intermittently at best over the next day until I get back to DC Sunday night. It's an old laptop, so I'll need a new one anyway, but am going to buy a new power cord today as that seems to be the problem. And if that doesn't work, it's new laptop time for bonzo. And as I'm blogging right now on my friend's ancient iBook, and it's amazing, I'm strongly considering finally making the switch. This thing is great. Read the rest of this post...

It's the critics fault that Iraq is a major screw up

Give Bush a hanky. Blame the other guy and forget about taking responsibility, that's the story of his life. If the nation already thinks they were mislead, what kind of image is he trying to promote by dodging the mess that him and his team created. Who can forget those days when critics of the war were labeled wimps or anti-American? Ahhh yes, freedom and democracy in action. Don't get me wrong, those Democrats who voted for military force against Iraq deserve criticism and lots of it and I am still waiting for an explanation or a recognition that they made a mistake. However, to blame this quagmire on others just screams out that this guy himself is the wimp. When the going gets tough, he always blames everbody and anybody else. This guy is a coward and a much bigger wimp than his father ever was.

Let's see a little backbone George and accept responsibility for your own actions. Read the rest of this post...

AM Open Thread

Open thread away! Saw Jarhead last night. Anyone else seen it? Thoughts? Read the rest of this post...

Condi says strategy in Iraq working well

If it's going so well, why doesn't she spend more time there and travel around? Why doesn't Bush and Cheney and the rest of the team take some nice long visits there and soak up the full success that they created over there? Talk about removed and out of touch...these people still don't get it. I would hate to see what a failure looks like in their eyes. Read the rest of this post...

Labour MPs to defy Blair yet again

After cruising through since 1997 without interference Blair is now facing yet another revolt from his own Labour Party, this time on a proposed smoking ban. The Labour revolt wants to press forward with a complete smoking ban in pubs and not the watered down version that Blair prefers. It's starting to sound like Blair's term might be cut short whether he wants it to be or not. At least he will be able to spend a little more time with the family and hang out with his friend George. Wit his son heading over to the US to learn the tricks of the trade from Congressman David Dreier maybe Tony can talk about the good ol' days when lies and fear worked so well. Read the rest of this post...

Wash Post: Bush lied about lying about Iraq

This a must-read article in Saturday's Washington Post, front page. They eviscerate Bush's arguments of only yesterday that Congress saw the same intelligence he saw before voting to authorize force in Iraq (they didn't), and that a bipartisan Senate committee exonerated Bush from misrepresenting the intelligence (it didn't).

But outright lied yesterday in an attempt to - what? - convince us that he didn't lie about why we needed to invade Iraq. And the Washington Post caught him on it and detailed every single lie. It's an amazing article. Only a year ago, I fear the Post would have simply quoted Bush opponents disagreeing with Bush, rather than going through each argument on their own and blasting it out of the water.

An amazing piece of journalism. Read it and share it.

President Bush and his national security adviser have answered critics of the Iraq war in recent days with a two-pronged argument: that Congress saw the same intelligence the administration did before the war, and that independent commissions have determined that the administration did not misrepresent the intelligence.

Neither assertion is wholly accurate....

Bush and his aides had access to much more voluminous intelligence information than did lawmakers, who were dependent on the administration to provide the material. And the commissions cited by officials, though concluding that the administration did not pressure intelligence analysts to change their conclusions, were not authorized to determine whether the administration exaggerated or distorted those conclusions.

Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Well, I see Kyle got the cat up. Absolutely adorable - I hope he mentioned whose cat it was. An AMERICAblog reader sent me a pic of his kitten, who he says is a diligent AMblog reader. There were other pics too, equally adorable. So in lieu of orchid blogging, since I'm in NYC and my laptop just died (it's over 4 years old, I suppose it's allowed to die), I figured the kitten could sit in. Gnite all. Read the rest of this post...