If Not Now, When?

Everyone should read Clarke's book about his work for four administrations and how W planned to go into Iraq from day one. It's also obvious from closely following Gulf War I and the aftermath (sanctions, bombing raids etc).

Just received this from an Army base in Germany, with the comment - I guess he didn't fit the description of a terrorist - no turban - no Koran:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4072746.stm

Blair and Bush were together yesterday, doing damage control about their "pants on fire"

This is circulating about the Cell here:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050620&s=cobble

A Resolution of Inquiry? Now that sounds serious!

And everyone should read BAGHDAD BURNING: Girl Blog from Iraq -- for the human side of the story.

It is our next selection for the Book Club. I think, if we are all to work in concert, and tell stories and share insight TOGETHER as well as individually, the idea of reading the same book together and discussing it is a vitally important step.

The discussion about the war and what should happen next needs some real input. We chose this book for that reason.

Please purchase it through Powell's:

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-1558614893-0&partner_id=29373

as the DCP gets a little money when you do so from our site. (You can also get there the long way, by going to BUY STUFF at the top nav bar and clicking then on Books. Powells is the online union bookstore.)

Also, to pick up key paragraphs from Di:Anne's post above:

"We have also made contact with several other members of Congress, and we believe that it will not be long before a group in Congress officially calls for an ROI.

Unfortunately, as most Nation readers know, the Downing Street Minutes have only been a story in the rest of the world, especially in Britain. In the United States it is taking much longer for the mainstream to pick up on it, and the issue is still being treated far less seriously than the seriousness of the charges warrant.

Fortunately, the blogosphere has found this new proof of George W. Bush's "misleadership" much more compelling than the mainstream press has; writers like Apian have posted incisive diaries on www.dailykos.com/, which regularly covers the story, as has Georgia10 and her friends, who founded the wonderful site www.downingstreetmemo.com/.

Despite a slow start, the Downing Street Minutes may have a long life expectancy, and the Misleader of the Pack may yet have to confront the truth."

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050620&s=cobble

Today's Five miniutes for democracy asks us to amplfy and aggregate. Let's get going.

You've got a story to tell. We have heard it here. It's good. Get it out there.

today's NYTimes:
Bush and Blair Deny 'Fixed' Iraq Reports

The White House has always insisted that Mr. Bush did not make the decision to invade Iraq until after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell presented the administration's case to the United Nations Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003, which relied heavily on claims, now discredited, that Iraq had illicit weapons. But as early as Nov. 21, 2001, Mr. Bush directed Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to begin a review of what could be done to oust Mr. Hussein.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/international/08prexy.html?
-------------------------
Bring It Down. Now.
by David Michael Green

The Downing Street Memo is the gift that just keeps on giving. And well it should. It is the smoking gun which proves that the gravest possible crime was committed by the Bush administration, and among its victims were the American people.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0607-26.htm
-----------------------
President Bush, With the Candlestick...
by Robert Parry

The clues are falling into place, pointing to the incontrovertible judgment that George W. Bush willfully misled the United States into invading Iraq, in part, by eliminating the possibility of the peaceful solution that he pretended to want.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0607-30.htm
--------------------------
The Real Memogate
By Solomon Hughes
In These Times

President Bush gratefully received Tony Blair's support for the invasion of Iraq, but that relationship may now be turning sour. As antiwar feeling runs high in Britain, recently leaked secret official documents show both the U.S. and U.K. governments conspired to cook up a case for a pre-planned Iraq war.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/060605H.shtml

From a friend:

June 8, 2005
Gary Webb - Presente

Please Distribute Widely

Dear Colleague,

Towards the end of the two-day session by the Organization of American States (OAS) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the U.S. ambassador to the organism, Roger Noriega, threw a temper tantrum.

After all, Washington had just received a stunning rebuke from the other countries around the table against its proposal to create mechanisms for foreign meddling in the affairs of other countries (read: Venezuela), and Bolivian President Carlos Mesa had just offered his resignation in the face of a massive popular movement to nationalize the Bolivian gas industry.

Noriega, not used to losing gracefully, simply blew his top, spitting loudly that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is to blame for Bolivia's crisis.

Noriega has a point, but not in the way he thinks he has it...

Read all about it at:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/6/8/91629/48549

From somewhere in a country called América,

Al Giordano
Correspondent
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com
narconews@gmail.com

Boy, I sure hope the media picks this up. I wonder when the critical mass occurs when they can't help but report it. The low approval ratings have to help.

On another front - a Republican President in training - from the Boston Globe...

Romney, PTA tussle over appointment
Governor unhappy with parent group's choices for education panel
By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff | June 8, 2005

The idea seemed harmless: Put a parent on the state Board of Education for the first time, so that parents' concerns would be heard.

But the naming of a parent to the Board of Education has become a surprisingly intense tug-of-war between the state Parent Teachers Association and Governor Mitt Romney. Two weeks ago, the PTA sent Romney a list of three women from which to choose, including two Democrats, and asked the governor to pick one.

Instead, an aide from the governor's office last week told the PTA that the governor wanted three additional candidates, perhaps including a man. The problem with the PTA's list, a spokeswoman for Romney said, was that the candidates opposed the MCAS and charter schools. In the governor's view, the PTA's list didn't include someone who would represent most parents.

-snip-

Porth said the governor's approach makes it seem as if he is trying to stack the board with a ''yes man." She said the governor had suggested businessman Carl McFadden, a Republican Party donor whom Romney had appointed to another state panel.

For full article: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/06/08/romney_pta_tussle_over_appointment/

You may need to register first - it's free.

from Sen. Russ Feingold, on Iraq & DowningStreet Minutes:

War is hot topic at listening session

By Mike DuPre' Gazette Staff

-The Iraq War is a mess that's only getting messier, Sen. Russ Feingold said before and during a listening session Monday.

"The mantra for Fox News is that we only hear the bad news," Feingold, a Democrat, said of the media outlet thought by many observers to be right wing.

"I was over there (in February), and we don't hear enough bad news," Feingold said before the session.

He traveled with four other senators, including Republican John McCain and Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton. The other four voted in support of the Iraq War, while Feingold opposed it.

Despite their initial support, Feingold said, his colleagues, who had visited Iraq before, told him the situation had deteriorated badly.

During the session, Feingold called the war an "amazing mess. … If you want to get depressed, you should read the appallingly flippant answers" that Bush administration officials gave during Senate hearings before the war.

The answers generally boiled down to the war would be a cakewalk, Feingold said.

And, he said, that two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration released a list of two dozen countries it said al-Qaida operated in, but Iraq was not listed.

One of the people at the listening session said he was troubled that the Bush administration seems bent on following the path of "preventive war." He referred to the so-called "Downing Street memo," minutes of a meeting of British officials about Iraq eight months before the war.

The Times of London published the memo May 1.

The following is an excerpt from The Times report as listed on the newspaper's Web site:

"C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

Feingold told his audience: "I can't tell you the amount of comment I've heard on the Downing Street memo."

He said he soon would be at a breakfast meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Feingold said he would question Blair closely about the memo and prewar intelligence, which the Bush administration has admitted was wrong but which it maintains was not rigged to justify war.

American war deaths have topped 1,670, Feingold noted, adding that it's past time for the administration to set a withdrawal date.

"I've said for some time that we need a timetable," Feingold said.

The schedule should be flexible and have fallback positions to allow for changes in conditions in Iraq, he said, but a timetable is needed to give both the American and Iraqi people some sense of when American troops will leave Iraq.
http://www.gazetteextra.com/feingold_side060705.asp
--------------
Senator Kennedy on the Downing Street Minutes:

“The contents of the Downing Street Minutes confirm that the Bush Administration was determined to go to war in Iraq, regardless of whether there was any credible justification for doing so. The Administration distorted and misrepresented the intelligence in its attempt to link Saddam Hussein with the terrorists of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden, and with weapons of mass destruction that Iraq did not have.
continue~
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/7/101849/4431

Downing Street Tipping Point?

(June 8, from LiberalOasis)

A common tipping point in a scandal is the moment when the key figure is forced to publicly comment on the allegation.

Often the story is just kicking around on the fringes, but a public comment -- be it a denial, clarification or apology – can prod mainstream media into giving the story new or higher-profile coverage.

However, tipping points can tip either way.

A well executed denial or apology can snuff out a scandal before it metastasizes. An unsatisfying comment can lead to a growing and deafening chorus of questions.

snip~
As Think Progress notes, the fact that the memo was written before the UN process is irrelevant.

The UN didn’t pass the resolution that Bush wanted, and Bush went to war anyway. That only enhances the argument that minds were made up in advance.

The question now is, will reporters continue to respond to pressure, recognize that they are not getting satisfactory responses, and pound at this story?

snip~
Will the media tip forward, in the direction of pursuit of these minutes?

Or will they tip backward, taking Bush’s denials at face value and calling it a day?
more~
http://www.liberaloasis.com/
-------------

debunking Bush/Blair, from Think Progress:

Bush’s Downing Street Answer Raises More Questions

Thanks to the activity of the many bloggers who have argued strenuously that President Bush be asked about the Downing Street Memo, a question finally got asked this afternoon. Blair jumped to answer the question before Bush could get a chance. And he proceeded to deliver the talking point of the day: the Downing Street Memo was written before the U.S. went to the U.N. Your first question might be: what does that have to do with anything? Answer: nothing. Either the intelligence was being fixed or it wasn’t.
more~
http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=1046

from USA Today:

Downing Street memo' gets fresh attention

By Mark Memmott USA TODAY

A simmering controversy over whether American media have ignored a secret British memo about how President Bush built his case for war with Iraq bubbled over into the White House on Tuesday.

At a late afternoon news conference, Reuters correspondent Steve Holland asked Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair about a memo that's been widely written about and discussed in Europe but less so in the USA.
more~
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050608/a_memo08.art.htm

Suz---
We are missing something again. Perhaps the DSM isn't being presented to Americans in a way that ignites them into taking action. Right now it's just some Brit messhuggah.

Besides liar liar pants on fire, which sounds utterly juvenile to me, something else has to be said to people. Misled, cheated,fixed intelligence, whatever, the idea that the ends justified the means seems to be hunky-dory with people right now. After all, we aren't in Iraq because of WMD, we are there spreading freedom and democracy. Iraq held elections, (in case anyone forgot)The world is better off without Saddam. Blah blah blah blab blab blab.

How to overcome is the question. Neither the W/H or Blair even bothers to deny the DSM. They act as if it's just not of any substance. What is getting out here is, 'pay no attention to that memo behind the screen.' Are they ignoring it because it's truly meaningless to their plans, because they have yet another ace up their sleeve to make the truth go away, because they figure it will go down the memory hole, or what?

I'd love to hear or see or find just the right combination of words that people will pick up, repeat and pass on. I was thinking about all the other blogs, and what it would take to force feed the issue out into the mainstream. Wouldn't it be great to hold a Downing Street Day on the blogs? We could set it up as the blog conference on the Downing Street Memo. We would need people to help us promote it, and ask other blogs to sign up to participate. I have this vision of every blog, big and little posting the same header on the same day. Sort of 'the blog heard round the world'

I'm sick of blogs being made fun of, of progressive blogs being treated like a bunch of wild eyed liberals. If the blogs really want to be taken seriously, and our headlines start getting treated like serious topical matter, why not have every blog publishing the headline that you SHOULD be seeing on your television and in your newspaper but aren't?

This just in:

Bush, Blair, and Bumiller

By David Swanson, www.afterdowningstreet.org

The corporate media today began its coverage of the Downing Street Minutes, moved to
do so by a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Tony Blair, and by the pressure all
of us have applied.

And, while most newspapers simply reported what Bush and Blair said, the USA Today,
Houston Chronicle, Boston Globe, Columbus Dispatch, and Salon called
www.AfterDowningStreet.org for comments. The articles are posted and linked to on
our site.

And the Washington Post provided a lengthy and quite interesting chat on its website
with staff writer Jefferson Morley, also available via www.afterdowningstreet.org.

But the Post's Dana Milbank declared the story over, having apparently mistaken a
starting pistol for a fatal shot.

Here's what he wrote:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=101

Here's how to politely tell him he's mistaken:

milbankd@washpost.com

The New York Times' Elisabeth Bumiller published the following piece of stenography:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/international/08prexy.html

This puts into new light Bumiller's famous comment that "You can't just say the
president is lying. You don't just say that...."

>From a panel broadcast on C-Span:

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2481

Bumiller: That's why it's very hard to write those, because you can't say George
Bush is wrong here. There's no way you can say that in the New York Times. So we
contort ourselves up and say, "Actually"- I actually once wrote this sentence: "Mr.
Bush's statement did not exactly . . . " It was some completely upside down
statement that was basically saying he wasn't telling the truth. And I got an email
from somebody saying, "What's wrong with you guys? Why can't you just say it
plainly?" But there's just-

Loren Ghiglione (Medill School of Journalism, Moderator): Why can't you say it plainly?

Bumiller: You can't just say the president is lying. You don't just say that in the
. . . you just say-

Ghiglione: Well, why can't you?

[laughter from the audience]

Bumiller: You can in an editorial, but I'm sorry, you can't in a news column. Mr.
Bush is lying? You can say Mr. Bush is, you can say. . . .

[Murmuring and laughter continue from audience.]

Bumiller [to audience]: And stop the fussing! You can say Mr. Bush's statement was
not factually accurate. You can't say the president is lying-that's a judgment call.

How to politely ask Bumiller to report the truth even if it requires analyzing facts
and making judgments:

bumiller@nytimes.com

Tampa citizens are taking it to the streets:

Downing Street Memo
CITIZEN ACTION!
This is what it's all about...
http://downingstreetmemo.com/takeaction.html#citizen

[includes photos]
http://downingstreetmemo.com/protest-pics.html

Bu$h & the MSM can try to dimiss the importance of the Downing Street Minutes/Memo as "coming from the Left"...
But perhaps it won't be so convenient for them to bury the story if the Gold Star families demand a credible explanation from POTUS on why their loved ones died in Iraq:

Demand Resolution of Inquiry into Downing Street Minutes
Members of Gold Star Families for Peace will be meeting with members of Congress on 15 June, 2005 to demand that each individual member act in accordance with his/her conscience, integrity, courage and duty as employees of America sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America and abide by its contents.
snip~
GSFP believes that our loved ones have died needlessly, senselessly, and avoidably in the aggression against Iraq. We would like to see someone held accountable for the irresponsible deaths of American forces as well as tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens.

GSFP will be holding a press-conference before we visit Congress in the morning on June 15th. Time and place TBA. Pleace call contact for more info.

Contact: Cindy Sheehan
Scindy121@aol.com
www.gsfp.org
www.AfterDowningStreet.org

more~
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/7/154726/7985

on the lack of fresh recruits for bu$h's war...from a Republican perspective [Novak, of all people...awwk]:: "don't blame the army, blame Bu$h's war"

America's recruiting dilemma
Facing pressure with the war in Iraq

WASHINGTON -- Retired Army Lt. Col. Charles Krohn got himself in trouble with his superiors as a Pentagon civilian public affairs official during the first three and one-half years of the Bush administration by telling the truth.

He is still at it in private life. He says not to blame the military recruiters for the current recruiting "scandal." Blame the war.

"Army recruiting is in a death spiral, through no fault of the Army," Krohn told me. Always defending uniformed personnel, he resents hard-pressed recruiters being attacked for offering unauthorized benefits to make quotas.

In a recent e-mail sent to friends (mostly retired military), Krohn complained that the "Army is having to compensate for a problem of national scope."

The Army's dilemma is maintaining an all-volunteer service when volunteering means going in harm's way in Iraq. The dilemma extends to national policy. How can the United States maintain its global credibility against the Islamists, if military ranks cannot be filled by volunteers and there is no public will for a draft?

snip~
The problem was signaled when the 9/11 attack on America did not generate the enlistments expected. Three and one-half years later, willingness to face personal peril in Iraq has faded.

That means the problem goes beyond mechanics of recruiting and the details of volunteer service and is found in the war itself. Paraphrasing Rumsfelds' comment about going into battle with the Army we had, Charles Krohn said: "The war we have now is not the war we started off with. It's much more serious."

more~
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/05/26/recruiting.dilemma/index.html

Here's my email to Bumiller:

Subject: Bush, Blair, and the Downing Street Memo

Hello,

I'm writing to ask you to do some real investigative reporting on this story, rather than just regurgitating the line the President has fed you. He is lying. You know it. I know it. Many people know it. DO YOUR JOB. Otherwise, what's the point?

Have you ever even considered the fact that meeting minutes are approved? These aren't some random papers. This is an offical, approved document - approved by some people other than the person who wrote it. They would not have approved it if they did not agreee that is was accurate.

Get some guts. Do your job. Blood is already on your hands. Clean it off a little, by exposing Bush for the LIAR that he is. If you can't use those words, then say it another clear way. "Bush's story does not match the facts." "Something does not add up." There are many ways to make it clear. Please do it.

Sincerely,

Honestly, I've about had it. I just went outside with my dogs, and my neighbor was out on his porch so I said my usual friendly hello. (he is a Bush voter, but he does nice neighborly things) So, just to test the waters, since I had this thread on my mind, I asked him what he thought about the DSM.

He hadn't even heard of it, but it's either....
1. not true
2. some trivial thing blown out of proportion
3. a misunderstanding
4. bush haters acting out again

SEE--it just doen't matter to some people!!!!!

Okay, so I live across the street from a kool aid drinking troll. But, the fact is, he will take WHATEVER is the excuse du jour and accept that its a fact, IF he even hears about it at all. And, if the W/H ignores it, thats good enough for him, he should just ignore it too.

C'mon people, we can fool ourselves all we want, but I asked, WHY are the Bushies so sure they can pffft this off and get away with it? If they deny it, they might, just might get a few more sniffers and question askers, so they don't do that. Yup, memo, okay, not important, move along, nothing to see here.

Casey: you met John Edwards last week. I have a problem with any Dems like Edwards and Biden critizing Howard Dean as they both did last week. I just couldn't imagine MCain or Frist critizing Mehlman over a statement he has made and he has made plenty of just plain dumb statements. As Dems we need to be unified and stand behind Howard Dean for all the good he is doing to reach out to red states and I say that even though I have never been a big fan of Dean. I just believe that our message needs to be unified and not fractured with discord from our leaders. Repubs do a good enough job of accomplishing that for us. To say that Repubs are predominately coupon clippers is accurate, though I would say was an unnecessary statement, and a given.

This was in my in box...

Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?
The torrential rains of a mother's weeping will never be done They call him a hero, you should be glad that he's one, but Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?

Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?
He must be brave because his boy died for another man's lies The only grief he allows himself are long, deep sighs Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?

Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother's grave?
They say that he died so that the flag will continue to wave But I believe he died because they had oil to save Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother's grave?

Have you ever heard the sound of a nation being rocked to sleep?
The leaders want to keep you numb so the pain won't be so deep But if we the people let them continue another mother will weep Have you ever heard the sound of a nation being rocked to sleep?

by Carly Sheehan
Brother Casey KIA 04/04/04
Sadr City Baghdad

Tut - they think they can get away with it exactly because there are so many sheep like your neighbor.

Okey dokey, Georgie, whatever you say.

Can you secretly leaflet the neighborhood? :-)

by the way - your DSM blog day was a great idea!

Battlebob - POWERFUL.

Ira --

I agree that unity is important, but I don't think last week's minor variance between Dean and Edwards was any big deal... just the media working to avoid real reporting. Probably Biden and Edwards could have phrased their responses differently, but ultimately, they agree on the big stuff..

Dean's choice of words was not the greatest, although I think his point was taken despite that.

But I wouldn't worry about it too much... Edwards has clarified things on his blog, and I think it's all pretty much a dead deal.

Ira,

John Edwards put this "disagreement" thing to rest beautifully in this post today at the OneAmerica blog site

http://blog.oneamericacommittee.com/article.pl?sid=05/06/06/2117240§ion=&mode=nested&tid=1

Check it out...

Edwards put it to rest for us, but the media won't pick that up because there's no juice to it.

It's the appearance of a split that kills us. It feeds the flame. People should be able to disagree. But we need to be very careful how we do it.

Kerryon62:

My post was not so much a criticism of Edwards but a message that we need to stand united behind Dean. Progressives constantly like to beat up on each other. Ed Schultz has been criticizing Dean for not raising enough money and I contacted him and let him know that those comments are counter productive, and then to hear more criticisms from Edwards et al is unnecessary. Dean has a tough job to create a new Dem Party in the south and he needs all the positive feed back we can muster for him to succeed, starting here.

From a review of Diane Sawyer's interview of Brad Pitt in Salon:

"...As for those photos of him walking on the beach with Jolie and her son, Maddox, for which some publications paid an estimated $500,000 to $750,000 fee, Pitt said, "It's an amazing fact, the bounty that's on my head and the lengths that these people go to get these shots and the amount of money that they're paying for these shots. I can't help but think what that money could have gone to. Hell, I would have set up the damn pictures myself." He's hoping to "redirect" some of the attention paid to him and his relationships to focusing on death, disease and poverty in Africa. "It drives me mental seeing what I've seen [in Africa] and knowing that it doesn't show up in our news every day. I mean literally, thousands of people died today!" (ABC News)"

He gets it... like many of the rest of us...

So why doesn't MSM get it?

Looks like Frist and Specter are having the last laugh on the Judicial compromise. Seems to me that Frist and Speceter will be getting all 7 of their nominees confirmed. What a deal.

"It looks like in some ways Frist is seizing the initiative," said Carl W. Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. Moreover, he said, liberals may be deluded in thinking the bipartisan deal will thwart another contentious nominee -- Brett M. Kavanaugh, the White House staff secretary -- who is not named in the two-page agreement. Two years ago, Bush nominated Kavanaugh, who helped independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr pursue the Monica S. Lewinsky case, to the D.C. Circuit appeals court.

"I think it's wishful thinking by the Democrats that he won't move forward," Tobias said. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said of Kavanaugh in an interview yesterday, "I intend to push him."

Imagine:
Bush Official Edits Environmental Report

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/World/Climate_Change

On Bulmiller:

The New York Times has always been prissy. They still, by in large, refer to individuals as Mr. or Ms./Mrs., rather than by just their family name. It's only been in the last few years that their sports section has begun to refer to athletes by just their last names.

There's also the problem of what a reporter does versus a columnist. I've had this out with sports reporters who routinely state opinions, when their role (and what I was taught to do in my journalism classes) is reporting facts. Reporters are supposed to report, unless the piece is described as an analysis. Columnists express opinions.

What any reporter in the Times can, and should, be saying is that the facts do not sync with the spin of the GOP machine or the Administration. The facts do not sync. Krugman, Kristoph, Friedman, Dowd, and editoral board, can and should say that the President lied in print. At this point, Bulmiller is still a reporter, and not a columnist - even if she has a substantial profile. What she, and her colleagues, should be doing is documenting the huge gulf between the facts and the Administration's post summer-2002 arguments for the war.

Americans Say War in Iraq Has Not Made U.S. Safer

You can't fool all of the people all of the time. From a Washington Post-ABC News Poll:

For the first time since the war in Iraq began, over half of the American public believes the fight there has not made the United States safer, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

While the focus in Washington has shifted from the Iraq conflict to Social Security and other domestic matters, the survey found that Americans rank Iraq second only to the economy in importance -- and that many are losing patience with the enterprise.

Nearly three quarters of Americans say the number of casualties in Iraq is unacceptable, while two-thirds say the U.S. military there is bogged down and nearly six in 10 say the war was not worth fighting -- in all three cases matching or exceeding the highest levels of pessimism yet recorded. More than four in ten now believe the U.S. presence in Iraq is becoming analogous to the experience in Vietnam.

Perhaps most ominously, 52 percent said the war in Iraq has not contributed to the long-term security of the United States, while 47 percent said it did. It was the first time a majority of Americans disagreed with the central notion President Bush has offered to build support for war: that the fight there will make Americans safer from terrorists at home. In late 2003, 62 percent thought the Iraq war aided U.S. security, and just three months ago 52 percent thought so.

Overall, more than half-- 52 percent -- disapprove of how Bush is handling his job. A somewhat larger majority-56 percent-- disapproved of Republicans in Congress and an identical proportion disapproved of Democrats.

However, there were signs that Bush and Republicans in Congress were receiving more of the blame for the recent standoffs over such issues as Bush's judicial nominees and Social Security. Six in ten respondents said Bush and GOP leaders are not making good progress on the nation's problems; of those, 67 percent blamed the president and Republicans while 13 percent blamed congressional Democrats. For the first time, a majority, 55 percent, also said Bush has done more to divide the country than to unite it.

A new thought from an old friend......

teflonis commandus stupidicus
G.W.B.

Insurgent attacks kill 4 U.S. troops

Wednesday, June 8, 2005 Posted: 1:01 PM EDT

Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi insurgents have killed four U.S. troops in attacks in the past 24 hours, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

The latest death occurred Wednesday at noon just south of Tikrit. A roadside bomb killed a soldier in a vehicle while on patrol in near Ad Dawr, the military said.

Ad Dawr, where Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. troops in 2003, is about 90 miles (144 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad.

On Tuesday night, the military said two soldiers with the 42nd Infantry Division were killed during an "indirect fire attack" around 10 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) at a coalition base in Tikrit.

In a separate incident, a roadside bomb exploded Tuesday near a U.S. Army vehicle on patrol in northern Baghdad.

A soldier from the 1st Corps Support Command was pronounced dead at a military medical facility.

The overall death toll of U.S. troops in the Iraq war is 1,682.

Reconsidering Iraq
Suicide bombers, purple fingers and American resolve

By Howard Fineman
MSNBC contributor
June 8, 2005

WASHINGTON - I’m sitting here with a gloomy letter from Iraq, written by a high-ranking officer I cannot name in a branch of service I cannot name in a part of the country I cannot name. But trust me, because I trust him. Iraqis, he says, have no feel for or belief in the democracy we want to create, and our occupation is making them less, not more, capable of self-government.

“Our eventual departure,” he worries, “will leave nothing but cosmetic structure here.” “Every mission,” he writes, “requires a conscious escape from the resignation that there is nothing here to win and every occasion to fail.”

Small miracles do happen – a child is saved, a generator is installed. There remain “possibilities.” But sullen eyes along the roadsides give this officer “the feeling that we have stayed too long but can not leave.”

You can dismiss this as understandable but misleading musings of an officer who has seen too many men killed, and who doesn’t see the “big picture.” But what exactly IS the big picture? That’s the dominant question as our next political cycle – the one that culminates in the 2008 election – begins.

Read more... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8144280/

MSM
the term "investigative journalist" seems like a quaint term from the long ago echo of the Watergate era. There are very few (ANY?)such critters anymore in the newsrooms of America. And in the tv-news-infotainment studios? HA!

If we wait for the MSM to expose the bu$hINC crimes, its just not going to happen. They follow the "dust up" du jour, served to them daily by the bu$h administration...(like what Dean said)...every DEM they interview about "what Dean said" should face the camera and answer "Let's talk about what Bu$h DID"
or
"Dean is not responsible for deaths in Iraq, so let's take this opportunity to tell your viewers about what really matters. Bu$h lied. So tell me again why we're discussing what Dean said."

sigh...

sigh...

Posted by: on.to.victory4Dems at June 8, 2005 01:37 PM

i'll have a double, thank you.

Posted by: Ira at June 8, 2005 12:34 PM
============================
Ira --

I agree. Dean's got a tough job to do, and we need to provide support, and not constant carping. I wish that Edwards and Biden had been a little more cicumspect in their responses to Dean's remark's but, hey...

The truth is that democrats enjoy beating the hell out of each other. It's a simple truth that haunts us constantly and i think is a huge part of our recent defeats.

I spent some time this morning over at Atrios, where some of the folks on his blog were kicking the hell out of all potential 2008 candidates - 3 years in advance...

The day after the election in 2008, they'll all be standing around scratching their heads wondering what went wrong...

As I said to Karen yesterday, I'd feel alot better about the future of the Progressive movement if roughly half the people would please just leave now.

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