Capitol police erected barriers to contain thousands, but by mid-afternoon yesterday, only 20 people were in line -- providing a luxurious person-to-portable-toilet ratio of 1:1.Mickeleh's Take: This was just the prelims. The big service will be on Tuesday. With no football games competing.
This whole endeavor, from the very start, has been about taking tawdry, cheap acts and dressing them up in a papier-mache grandeur -- phony victory celebrations, ersatz democratization, reconstruction headed up by toadies, con artists and grifters. And this is no different. Hanging Saddam is easy. It's a job, for once, that these folks can actually see through to completion. So this execution, ironically and pathetically, becomes a stand-in for the failures, incompetence and general betrayal of country on every other front that President Bush has brought us.
Bush and advisers meet the press yesterday at Crawford. Said Bush, "I'm making good progress toward coming up with a plan that we think will help us achieve our objective." Said the advisers, nothing.
September 11, 1974
The best documentation we have of the unravelling of the Nixon presidency is Herblock's compendium of his Watergate cartoons, Herblock, Special Report.At a private reception held at the White House with newly elected lawmakers shortly after the election, Bush asked Webb how his son, a Marine lance corporal serving in Iraq, was doing.
Webb responded that he really wanted to see his son brought back home, said a person who heard about the exchange from Webb.
“I didn’t ask you that, I asked how he’s doing,” Bush retorted, according to the source.
Webb confessed that he was so angered by this that he was tempted to slug the commander-in-chief, reported the source, but of course didn’t. It’s safe to say, however, that Bush and Webb won’t be taking any overseas trips together anytime soon.
Bush's institute will hire conservative scholars and "give them money to write papers and books favorable to the President's policies," one Bush insider said.... "It's a stretch," said another source briefed on the plans. "It's so much bigger than anything that's been tried before. But the more you have, the more influence [on history] you can exert.Half a billion is a lot of money. More than it took run his losing campaign in the first place and to elect the summabitch in the second place. Who gives that much of a sh*t about his legacy? DeFrank says, "Bush loyalists have already identified wealthy heiresses, Arab nations and captains of industry as potential 'mega' donors." And, of course, proud Texans.
The new Congress could amuse itself, he said, by “searching for any sign of movement in Speaker Pelosi's forehead.” The Senate, he added, would be entertained by “the expressionless, Pelosi-like forehead of Sen. Clinton.”Henneberg calls Dowd on playing the same sexist card. Later in the same column, Dowd says Pelosi throws like a girl.
Even though her guy lost, this was still a big win for her. A victory for taking a stand -- and for her leadership. Because that's what real leaders do, they take stands. They listen to their hearts and follow their gut. If you only jump into the fights you're sure you can win -- notches in the W column that will look good on your political resume -- you're a hack, not someone who can move the party and the country forward. It's not about trying to have a spotless record; it's about knowing which battles are worth fighting, whatever the outcome.
It bodes well for Pelosi that was willing to spend her political capital right off the bat -- especially on the issue that will define her time at the helm. Far too many modern politicians save their political capital until it's lost all its value.
The American voters have just demanded our ration of common humanity, but Bush wants us to be part of his Big Push. David Kurtz on TPM quotes extensively from a Guardian report on the Bush plan. (This, apparently, has been developed in parallel with the famed Baker Iraq Study Group).ALLENBY
You're an important part of the Big Push!
LAWRENCE
I don't want to be part of your big push!!
ALLENBY
What in hell do you want, Lawrence?
LAWRENCE
I've told you -- I just want my ration of common humanity.
For more on this, see Memeorandum.com
- Increase US troop levels by up to 20,000 to secure Baghdad and allow redeployments elsewhere in Iraq
- Focus on regional cooperation with international conference and/or direct diplomatic involvement of countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
- Revive reconciliation process between Sunni, Shia and others
- Increased resources from Congress to fund training and equipment of Iraqi security forces
The government's argument is a fairly straightforward application of one of the worst features of the Military Commissions Act of 2006-- the elimination of habeas corpus rights for non-citizens within the United States when the government chooses to brand them enemy combatants. I've argued that this provision is unconstitutional, but no court has yet ruled on the questionSee also, Jayne Lyn Stahl, "What Part of Outrage Don't They Understand?"
"... after 12 years of tolerating lying, cheating and corruption, the press is prepared to lecture Democrats on how to behave with bipartisan manners. Given Bush's record with the truth, this bipartisanship sounds like a bad idea on its face... "All well and good for Pelosi to start with the low-hanging fruit of the first 100 hours. That's what all the Democratic talking heads have been pounding home on the talk shows. (Minimum wage, negotiated prices for prescription drugs, implementing 9/11 Commission recommendations, cutting subsidies to oil companies, and reducing student loans.) But Ivins urges the Democrats not to roll over on the main event: the war.
"Then we get to the real meat of this election. There are all manner of shuffle steps and politically shrewd thing for the D's to do. But now is not the time to be clever. The Democrats won this election because we are involved in a disastrous war"Mickeleh's Take: Bush showed how eager he is to reciprocate Democratic offers of cooperation by putting the Bolton nomination and the warrantless wiretap legislation on the agenda for the current lame-duck Congress. Bolton looks to be DOA (Thank you, Sen Chafee). Warrantless wiretaps deserves an early death. Bush has enormous power, but he's lost the power to set the agenda for Congress--unless the Democrats foolishly give it back to him.
The new AP count showed Webb with 1,172,538 votes and Allen with 1,165,302, a difference of 7,236. Virginia has had two statewide vote recounts in modern history, but both resulted in vote changes of no more than a few hundred votes.
An adviser to Allen, speaking on condition of anonymity because his boss had not formally decided to end the campaign, said the senator wanted to wait until most of canvassing was completed before announcing his decision, possibly as early as Thursday evening.
Bush will start testing the new Congress as soon as he can. He will claim the power to do something beyond the normal range of the Executive, and it will be nothing anyone should make a constitutional crisis over. Congress will let him get away with it.
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and powers...Hmm. That verse goes on to conclude:
"...against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." —Ephesians 6:12
It's true you can't win with 51% of the vote anymore. So just get over it. The regime's sneak attack via vote suppression will only net them 4.5 million votes, about 5% of the total. You should be able to beat that blindfolded. If you can't get 55%, then you're just a bunch of crybaby pussycats who don't deserve to win back America.Mickeleh's Take: Vote and get others to vote. No more blogging for me today. That's what I'm off to do.
11/7 - VOTE as though your future depends upon it - 'cause it does!
Tomorrow, at long last - or too soon? - is election day. There's this optimism that the Democrats are going to take enough seats in the House and, possibly, the Senate to become a majority. The following is my message and I approve it.
HildaB erstwhile Plat du Jour.
Tomorrow's outcome depends upon you - your single vote does count as does those of your family, friends, neighbors and business associates; that's how votes adds up. A huge Democratic turnout is the skeleton key to Democratic success and we need you to turn it in the right direction.
Our complacency is the friend of the Republicans and they're not taking their voters for granted.
The following are some Democratic challengers to Republican incumbents in our State.
BKLYN/STATEN ISLAND: 13TH CD: The House Republican conservative incumbent is Vito Fossella; always in lockstep with Bush on issues ranging from Iraq to the privatization of Social Security. Mr. Fossella has been exposed by the NYDaily News and the SI Advance for his corruption and affiliation with Jack Abramoff. Stephen Harrison is our Democratic challenger. Steve is smart, knowledgeable, politically active and progressive. From the get-go, Steve has been against Bush's invasion of Iraq.
WESTCHESTER: 19TH CD: Another conservative Republican, Sue Kelly is being challenged by JOHN Hall. John is a progressive Democrat and another who has opposed the Iraq invasion from the beginning.
HUDSON VALLEY: 20TH CD: House conservative Republican John Sweeney is being challenged by Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand. Smart, savvy and has been involved in our Party for quite some time. She'll make a great House Rep. and, I believe, the only (non-incumbent) woman running in New York.
MOHAWK VALLEY: 24TH CD: Incumbent Sherwood Boehlert is retiring and we have a great Democrat running, former DA Michael Arcurri.
CORNING: 29TH CD: First term and, yet again, conservative Republican Randy Kuhl is being challenged by Eric Massa. Eric is a Vietnam Veteran and has been extremely active within our Party. As with all the above mentioned challengers, Eric is a strong Democratic candidate based on his activism, progressive philosophy and wartime experience (at least he doesn't have to don a costume).
Each one of these Democratic challengers can win. But, truth be told, not without your help. Sadly, especially during mid-term elections, turnout is very low, in New York and nationally. Another truth, unless we take control of the House, we will not recover from the harm created by Bush and his in-lock-step Congress. There will be another push to privatize Social Security, there will be more families losing every thing because of medical needs with recourse to a fairbankruptcy law. And more and even worse will contaminate our future. If anyone thinks that our huge deficit can't get worse; picture this - China calls in its U.S. Treasury Bonds!!!
I am sending this message to my very, very large 'e' address book. I can only hope that I make even a little impact in contributing to a really big Democratic turnout. Actually, there is a good possibility that independents and Republicans will vote for a change. I know that politically, I'm taking to the 'congregation', but each of you are, individually and collectively, so important that I had to get this message out - and I still approve and hope that you do too.
HildaB
"This message is for Timothy Daly. This is the Virginia Elections Commission. We've determined you are registered in New York to vote. Therefore, you will not be allowed to cast your vote on Tuesday. If you do show up, you will be charged criminally.According to Kos, "Daly has been registered to vote in Virginia since 1998, and he has voted for the last several cycles with no problem. He has filed a criminal complaint with the Commonwealth's attorney in Arlington."
Only one party has a nationwide campaign to deliver millions of intentionally-harassing calls disguised to appear that they're from the opposite party. That party is the Republican party. And the calls are funded by the NRCC -- the House GOP election committee.Mickeleh's Take: The cable outlets much prefer to promote their election coverage by having their anchors and analysts endlessly interview each other about what will happen tomorrow. As for what's actually happening today, it's less interesting to them. I'll bet Keith covers it. Considering that this story has been building for the past three days, it's a scandal that It is so under-reported.
It's the party of election subversion. Deal with it.
said scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California last month had protested some of the weapons papers on the site to the National Nuclear Security Administration, an arm of the Department of Energy that runs the nation’s nuclear arms laboratories. The objections “never perked up to senior management,” the official said. “They stayed at the midlevels.Warnings about two of the most sensitive documents were taken down last month. But the rest remained publicly available until the Times blew the whistle Thursday night. The Times story lists several examples of warning raised and ignored.
"The campaign for the online archive was mounted by conservative publications and politicians, who said that the nation’s spy agencies had failed adequately to analyze the 48,000 boxes of documents seized since the March 2003 invasion. With the public increasingly skeptical about the rationale and conduct of the war, the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees argued that wide analysis and translation of the documents — most of them in Arabic — would reinvigorate the search for clues that Mr. Hussein had resumed his unconventional arms programs in the years before the invasion. American search teams never found such evidence."Mickeleh's Take: Will this story get more play or less than the Kerry kerfuffle? Prediction: The Republican line will be "How dare the Times expose this breach of security! Do they want the terrorists to win?"
"Kerry called them stupid and they were too stupid to know he called them stupid."Sorry, but if we believe that, then we're too stupid to know that they knew he wasn't talking about the troops.
"These are the stakes: to make a world in which all of God's children can live or go into the dark. We must either love each other or we must die."Johnson's rhetoric was about "all God's children," and "love." The GOP rhetoric is all about naming and nicknaming enemies that only they can protect us from, (terrorists, axis of evil, Islamofascists, defeatocrats, cut-and-runners).
I believe television spots function well as electronic posters for a candidate; i.e., they create auditory and visual stimuli that can evoke a voter's deeply held feelings. Indeed, the best political commercials are similar to Roschach patterns. They provide a context for him to express these feelings...Schwartz built his advertising around resonance. He belived that the audience already had more information than an advertiser could cram into a commercial. The best strategy of a communicator is not to pour things into the audience, but to call up what is already there.
Many people, especially the Repubicans, shouted that the spot accused Senator Goldwater of being trigger-happy. But nowhere in the spot is Goldwater mentioned. There is not even an indirect reference to Goldwater. Indeed, someone unfamiliar with the political climate in 1963 and viewing the spot today will not perceive any allusion at all to Goldwater... The commercial evoked a deep feeling in many people that Goldwater might actually use nuclear weapons. This mistrust was not in the Daisy spot. It was in the people who viewed the commercial.
Yet, with the distance of history, the questions will be narrowed and few: Did this generation of Americans take the threat seriously, and did we do what it takes to defeat that threat?
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