Saturday, July 19, 2008

Iraqi PM Backs Obama Troop Exit Plan

Our 5 year occupation has run it's course. The military can protect the oil, but it can't improve the situation unless they stop the hand holding. Iraqis have to step up. Sensing it's their country and their time to step up, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has endorsed Barack Obama's 16-month timetable, by name, for the United States to withdraw from Iraq:
"U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal"
So now that Bush is doing a 180˚ and talking about time tables, will he ever give credit to Barack or Democrats who have championed withdrawal for years? Asked about McCain's position, al-Maliki artfully disagreed without slamming Grandpa McSame:
"Whoever is thinking about the shorter term is closer to reality. Artificially extending the stay of U.S. troops would cause problems."
al Maliki added:
The Americans have found it difficult to agree on a concrete timetable for the exit because it seems like an admission of defeat to them. But it isn’t"
Once you get past Bush's second-grader "good vs evil" approach to foreign policy you see that a military occupation without humanitarian goals is useless. You have to care about more than just their oil.

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Friday, July 18, 2008

N.H. To Accept Free Oil From Chavez

Two years ago, New Hampshire refused to accept free heating oil from a program run by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the pro-Castro U.S. critic who once accurately called President Bush "the devil." The free oil was to come from from Venezuela's government-controlled Citgo. [What I don't get is that there are Citgo stations in the US, so it's not like boycotting their fuel altogether, just the free variety.] So why the change of heart? With fuel prices rising, well, free oil is free oil. With the state's blessing, New Hampshire residents will be receiving some of the fuel this winter.

The oil giveaway will be managed by Citizens Energy, a nonprofit organization set up by former Massachusetts Rep. Joseph Kennedy to help the poor stay warm.

Who was behind squelching the FREE oil two years ago? And on what principle? It was none other than Republican Sen. John Sununu, who called the it a "disgrace" and an attempt at grandstanding by Chavez. A state-run Venezuelan oil company was grandstanding? Who? The massive South American population in New Hampshire? The people who love paying for oil instead of getting it for free?

Nice of rich, affluent politicians to screw over their less fortunate constituents.

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Bush Following Obama's Policies

The Headline: Bush Agrees To "General Time Horizon" For Troop Reductions. Apparently Gen. Timehorizon is a new commander in the Bush Army of Never Ending Occupation to Procure Oil. Read on

So Bush is agreeing to a time table to exit Iraq. He is also meeting with Iran. All that talk for all these years has amounted to nothing. He is pretty much doing what Barack Obama has outlined in his policies as he runs for office. Hold Iraq accountable, engage Iran, draw down troops, and focus on the real centers of terror like Afghanistan and Pakistan. These are the realities of diplomacy, not the fantasy WMD stories or Wars-that-end-in-obvious-victories the Right likes to repeat. We can't control people 6000 miles away with force. The Republican Kook-Aid bunch are trying to lessen the impact of their failed administration by adopting, even if it is at the last minute, what the Democratic Congress was voted in place to do: end this occupation and bottomless spending.

If you were to take 5 actions that are the same, one done by a Republican and one by a Democrat, see how different the press would report on it. Democrats who want time tables are cutting and running and losing the war while Republicans who want time tables are winning and claim Mission Accomplished.

Whether you're Right or Left, here's what Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, describes Iraq, "I won't go so far as to say that progress in Iraq from a military perspective has reached a tipping point or is irreversible _ it has not, and it is not."

No long term success, no peace, just bundles of money spent and lives lost. The Right Wing are changing horses in the middle of the race and they know it.

Rove Should Go To Jail

Tell the House Judiciary Committee to hold Karl Rove in contempt and send him to jail. No Executive Privilege for the turd blossom. This has nothing to do with what he said to Bush. It is about his actions.



Sign the petition so we get this guy in jail where he belongs.

We need to send a message to the Bush Administration that their time is up. No more turning a blind eye to your crimes. The law will get you.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Bush Administration Talks With Iran

How will the Right Wing and conservatives view this? Bush is sending “a senior American official to participate in international talks with Iran this weekend,” effectively abandoning “its long standing position that it will only meet face-to-face with Iran after it first suspends uranium enrichment.” It is the first time since 1979 that the US and Iran have had such high level talks. [I thought the Republicans sold Iran arms in the 80's, the ol' Iran-Contra mess with Ronnie "I Don't Recall" Reagan and Ollie "Fox News Pundit" North]
Bush’s decision to allow American diplomats to meet with Iranian officials — while welcome — is surprising. In fact, just two months ago, Bush said, in a speech before the Israeli parliament, that those who favor rigorous diplomacy with Iran (including his own Defense Secretary) are supporting a policy of appeasement toward terrorists.
The Right had a field day with Neville Chamberlain WWII comparisons last month. They made Barack Obama out to be weak because he said he would engage Iran in talks. Classic right wing flip-flop. You know Rush and Hannity will spin this as a good thing so their retarded listeners' heads won't explode.

Will McSame McCain agree with this decision since he is in lockstep with Bush? All the fervent Bushies out there must be crying in their Hummers. For 7 years Bush acted the fool, this is his last ditch effort at doing something for his non-existent legacy. You shit the bed, Bush.

Hey, I welcome when our elected politicians use diplomacy, it's what they are supposed to do. Bush has made using intellect, experience, bargaining skills and wisdom out to be some form of weakness. When you don't have them, like Bush, you make them out to be inferior. It's like the second grader who makes fun of the kid with glasses.

Read on

I say it's Bush's "I tried to do something, they wouldn't listen, now I am allowed to bomb them" strategy.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

An Opportunity Lost

This kind of backs up what Barack Obama was saying today.

Via www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com:

In Matt Yglesias’ book, Heads in the Sand, which I can’t recommend enough, there’s an especially depressing chapter that explores the extraordinary opportunity the United States had in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. From Chapter Three:
"Nations around the world, including ones with long-standing tense relations with the United States, felt their interests threatened by the rise of transnational terrorism. An internationalist approach could have brought a vast quantity of resources from all around the world to bear on a handful of acute problems — a global alliance capable of achieving defined goals on several fronts."

It’s easy to forget what an important, generational moment this was the nation. Our traditional allies couldn’t have been more supportive, and were anxious to cooperate, but more importantly, untraditional allies wanted to forge new relationships with the United States, including Syria and Iran, both of which had long-standing concerns about al Qaeda. It was an unprecedented opportunity for America to lead. Instead, we had George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and a team of neocons, who had a dream to execute. We’re living with the consequences today, and will be for quite some time.

Read On

A Just System Would Impeach Bush

Via ThinkProgress:

Today, on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who has held several hearings on the Bush administration’s torture program, said that President Bush has committed “impeachable offenses”:

Nadler: "If we had a just system and it weren’t overly political, the president would be impeached. I think he has committed impeachable offenses."

Will The US Attack Iran? No.

Uri Avnery, an Israeli journalist, writes a great article about how a potential strike on Iran by the US, or by proxy Israel, will never happen. A quick look at a map is all you need to see his point. Iran controls the narrow Straight of Hormuz. Attack Iran and no oil makes it past this narrow gateway.

"The inevitable reaction to the bombing of Iran will be the blocking of this Strait. That should have been self-evident even without the explicit declaration by one of Iran's highest ranking generals a few days ago. Iran dominates the whole length of the Strait. They can seal it hermetically with their missiles and artillery, both land based and naval.

If that happens, the price of oil will skyrocket - far beyond the 200 dollars-per-barrel that pessimists dread now. That will cause a chain reaction: a world-wide depression, the collapse of whole industries and a catastrophic rise in unemployment in America, Europe and Japan.
"


Reflecting on the recent Israeli Air Force exercises and subsequent Iranian response of test firing their Shihab missiles, Uri notes:

"Once, such activities were called 'saber rattling', nowadays the preferred term is 'psychological warfare'. They are good for failed politicians with domestic needs, to divert attention, to scare citizens. They also make excellent television. But simple common sense tells us that whoever plans a surprise strike does not proclaim this from the rooftops. Menachem Begin did not stage public exercises before sending the bombers to destroy the Iraqi reactor, and even Ehud Olmert did not make a speech about his intention to bomb a mysterious building in Syria."


The threat of Iranian nuclear power is put into perspective by Uri:

"For years now, we have been bombarded by a propaganda campaign that depicts the Iranian nuclear effort as an existential threat to Israel. Forget the Palestinians, forget Hamas and Hizbullah, forget Syria - the sole danger that threatens the very existence of the State of Israel is the Iranian nuclear bomb.

I repeat what I have said before: I am not prey to this existential Angst. True, life is more pleasant without an Iranian nuclear bomb, and Ahmadinejad is not very nice either. But if the worst comes to the worst, we will have a "balance of terror" between the two nations, much like the American-Soviet balance of terror that saved mankind from World War III, or the Indian-Pakistani balance of terror that provides a framework for a rapprochement between those two countries that hate each other's guts.
"


Read more of Uri's article

Monday, July 14, 2008

Bush Commuted Sentence Of Biggest Killer Of All Time

Henry Lee Lucas was the biggest serial killer ever. Lucas confessed to involvement in about 600 murders, with an average of about one murder per week between his release from prison in mid-1975 to his arrest in mid-1983. He later recanted some of the murders, and the murder total was closer to 350, but you can say for sure he was a scumbag and deserved a tough sentence for his crimes.

At his trial in Texas, Lucas was ultimately convicted of 11 homicides and put on Death Row. You know how Texas loves to kill people. Minors? Retarded? No problem. They will fry you.

Now cut to when George Bush was governor of Texas. In his six years, "Jesus Freak" Bush oversaw 152 people to death. He was so proud and shameless of his death record I once saw him mocking a woman who was pleading for her life on TV. "Mr. Sanctity Of Life" had a hard-on for killing humans. But, for the sake of this story, just assume that's his thing. Bush, in his twisted little boy mind, kills the baddies.

But what if you were the worst of the worst? You were convicted of killing the most people ever. You're the worst person in the world. How would Bush treat the devil incarnate? In 1998, George Bush spared the life of Henry Lee Lucas. Think about that. There were 153 Death Row cases put before Gov. Bush and he commuted only one death sentence to life in prison. Only one. The 152 other people were killed. Bush intervened and commuted Henry Lee Lucas' death sentence to life in prison. Lucas ended up dying in 2001 in prison.

There may be some controversy, and I believe capital punishment is highly flawed, but isn't fitting that Bush spared the life of one of the worst people ever.

Read On

This Is News?

So one-time MN Governor Jesse Ventura, the Surreal Life hopeful who never said he was running for the Senate, confirms that he is not running for the Senate. So breaking news is like stating the obvious. Anything else he can confirm while he's at it? Will the sun rise in the East tomorrow?

He announced this on Larry King Live? Why not just do it on A&E's Intervention?

Publicity stunts are lame. Go back to taking care of your bald head and massive butt chin, Jesse. Although he would be poplular with the Republicans, they love actors. Reagan and Schwarzenegger. Bush is a great actor, too. Might as well mention McCain, too. Wannabe tough guy on the Straight Talk Express. What a joke.

I'll give it to Minnesota for taking politics not so seriously. Al Franken is running there, too.

McCain Open To Higher Taxes On Wealthier Americans

Carly Fiorina, a leading McCain advisor/surrogate and the Republican National Committee’s “Victory Chairman,” who exposed how clueless McCain is on his own stance on issues last week, has put McSame in yet another difficult spot this week.

In an interview, Carly Fiorina, a top adviser, explains that any tax increases on “middle- and working-class” Americans are off limits. She says if a bipartisan coalition is “creative enough” to fashion tax increases on wealthier Americans, that may prove palatable.

Raising taxes? You know we have to pay for Bush's outrageous spending the past 8 years, just man up and admit you have to get the money from somewhere. You've destroyed the middle class, now take on the fat cats.

Bush's F-U To The G8

George Bush will always be the worst President of all time. His actions at the recent G8 Summit in Japan makes you weep.

As with McCain's horrible sense of gallows humor, Bush gave the leaders of the free world, who have been very serious about the climate the past 8 years, a big fuck you with his "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

via HuffPo:
"Perhaps no single moment best encapsulated Bush's (dismal) record on the environment than his final meeting at the G8 summit. Fists pumping defiantly into the air -- much to the surprise (and, one can assume, consternation) of his fellow world leaders -- Bush gleefully proclaimed: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." While many have dismissed this comment as a poorly conceived joke, I can't think of a more frank, emblematic statement from a president who still refuses to acknowledge the severity of global climate change."

Read on

Bush is the only guy who thinks the jury is still out on science. Not sure if it's real.

Genocide Charges Filed Against Sudan's President

"THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court sought an arrest warrant Monday for Sudan's president on charges of waging a campaign of genocide and rape in Darfur, a high-risk strategy that could backfire against the people in the war-torn desert region.

The indictment marked the first time prosecutors at the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal have issued charges against a sitting head of state, though President Omar al-Bashir was unlikely to face trial any time soon.
"

I'm sure China will post any bond should this get any further.

"Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo filed 10 charges against al-Bashir related to a campaign of extermination of three Darfur tribes that the U.N. says claimed 300,000 lives and driven 2.5 million people from their homes. A three-judge panel was expected to take two to three months to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant."

Read on

Would The Left Do This?

Right-wing preacher Fred Phelps’s Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an “anti-gay hate group,” is planning to picket former White House press secretary Tony Snow’s funeral. The WBC has been seen at Iraqi War veterans funerals claiming “war casualties are divine revenge for America tolerating gays and lesbians.”

Would you ever see a Left Wing/Liberal group doing this?

The WBC, as with much of the Right Wing and The Religious Right, are out of touch with Americans and what America stands for. I wonder if Bush and McCain are worried about offending groups like the WBC with their policy decisions versus compromising with a more centrist, liberal viewpoint when thinking about what their base would like?

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Bush Is A Lame Duck

Compromise is an important practice of governing. Two sides agree to meet in the middle, neither side completely winning, but moving forward in a sensible manner. You do it in marriages, friendships, at work, with strangers. We all know how important it is.

Now look at Bush. Global Warming? Stem Cell Research? Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Warrantless Wiring Tapping? War Funding? Assessing the Iraqi Occupation? Picking Supreme Court Judges? Overseeing The Politicalization of the DoJ? His handling of Katrina?

I could go on and on. He was the President of the Republican Party, not the United States. Arguably the most rigid and obstinate figure in American public life, Bush never asked tough questions or saw the other side of the argument, his mind was made up before he even started.

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states. Can you name one top diplomat under Bush? Condi Rice? One achievement? How did she handle China? How did she handle Zimbabwe? How did she handle Darfur? How did she handle Palestine? How did she handle Pakistan?

Even more to the point, how did Bush handle imcompetence? FEMA? Alberto Gonzales? Karl Rove? Scooter Libby?

Bush's attempt at compromise is North Korea. Is your conservative base happy with you?

You have gone so long with out compromise, George, why don't you just end up all 8 years on the wrong side of every major issue.

Girl Who Silenced The UN For 5 Minutes

In 1992, Twelve-year-old Severn Suzuki and her friends raised money to go to Rio de Janiero for the UN Summit on the Environment.

"Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to share. We are afraid to let go of our wealth."



via Crooks and Liars

Freddie And Fannie: How You'll Pay For Their Mistakes

I wrote an article a few posts back about Bush's "ownership society" and how it has failed. As we see IndyMac, the second largest bank failure in history, get bailed out by the Feds, who do you think is picking up the tab for all this government action? The New York Times has a great article on the crisis situation we are in.

via NYT:

"It's dispiriting indeed to watch the United States financial system, supposedly the envy of the world, being taken to its knees. But that’s the show we’re watching, brought to you by somnambulant regulators, greedy bank executives and incompetent corporate directors."

"This wasn’t the way the 'ownership society' was supposed to work. Investors weren’t supposed to watch their financial stocks plummet more than 70 percent in less than a year. And taxpayers weren’t supposed to be left holding defaulted mortgages and abandoned homes while executives who presided over balance sheet implosions walked away with millions."

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, established by the Federal Government, could always count on the lobbying machines to keep their wheels oiled when they became exploited by greed. Keep more cash on hand? Raise capital? Beef up their financial positions? Nope.

"Now it looks as if the bill for that largess is coming due. Of course, it will be borne by the usual bagholders: United States taxpayers. You and me."

The same conservatives who championed deregulation that caused all this are the same people who welcome the US Government coming in to bail them out. The Right Wing loves corporate welfare. Why spend money to help people when you can give away billions to help greedy failed businesses?

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Schwarzenegger Blasts Bush On Global Warming

Not everyday you get to quote Ah-nuld and agree with him. I guess being a Republican in California is like a centrist at the end of the day.

"This administration did not believe in global warming," Schwarzenegger told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview that will air Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

"They just didn't believe in it or they didn't believe that they should do anything about it, since China is not doing anything about it and since India is not willing to do the same thing, so why should we do the same thing?" Schwarzenegger said.

"We don't wait for other countries to do the same thing. That's what makes America number one... And I think we have a good opportunity to do the same thing, also, with fighting global warming," he said.

"I'm very happy that California is in the forefront," he said. "We are very aggressive. We have made a commitment to roll back our greenhouse gas emissions to the 1990 level ... We didn't wait for Washington. I just felt that the administration and the federal government have been terrific partners in a lot of things for us and we have worked together very well, but environmental issues was not one of them.
"

Read On