Fumbling for Words

Yes, I too hear "Blame Clinton." It's kind of like a mantra they all have, or maybe it's a chip implant.

How many grownups do we need to remind them that projecting one's own shortcomings onto others rarely sticks? You can always tell the guilty child by who blames first.

And no, it does not make me feel safer to know that adolescents are running the country. They know where the key to the liquor cabinet is and think it's still their party.

I felt COMPLETELY safe in the 90's... plus, I got a nice raise every year... plus my monthly healthcare premiums were totally affordable... plus, energy prices were completely manageable... plus...

Feel free to chime in.

(BTW, I felt free to chime in in the 90's too)

I loved the 90's my husband was making 80,000 a year we could afford health care and family vacations. I felt totally safe in the knowledge that the grown ups running this country were capable and willing to talk to other countries who might hate us and see if there was a common ground. My children were recieving an awesome public education that was improving itself over the course of time. Secure in the knowledge that once they got out of High School with good grades a college education would be affordable and available to them. I could talk to my neighbors of all political parties without a fist fight breaking out even about the Lewinsky thing. Our Country was one cohesive unit operating as such we had oversite sometimes to much but still oversite of the excutive branch. Lets not forget the surplus in the budget for the first time ever. The deficit was being paid down and my childrens futures were pretty much assured.

My how times change.

monkey:

Ahhh, the 90s. I bought my new car then. Healthcare paid for. Houses were more affordable. Living in sunny Marin. Invested in the stock market. A boatload of opportunities in dot.com industries. And traveling was a breeze.

Could it be that the neocons have "Decade Envy"?

Posted by: April at October 12, 2006 02:42 PM

I know, damn that Bill Clinton for all those positive things, huh?

Bushies still believe in a place called Dope.

Posted by: monkey at October 12, 2006 02:45 PM

Monkey that was not Clinton the Republican controlled congress did all those wonderful things for us on their little own. (at least that is the claim when they actually acknowledge anything good happened in the 90's). They tend to forget Clinton was not affraid to veto anything he thought was bad for this country so they had to work with him.

Dam Clinton for having the guts and grit to work with BOTH Parties.

What a terrible human being he was.

Oppps is he is still alive :) I should have said what a terrible President he was. Somtimes I feel like the 90's were just a wonderful dream.

It is hard to tell what part of "peace and prosperity" the Republicans object to, but that's what we had under Clinton as opposed to Bush.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061012/ap_on_re_eu/britain_guantanamo
U.S. detentions draw British criticism
LONDON - The detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay is unacceptable and counterproductive, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Thursday, underlining an increasingly critical British line on the U.S.-run prison from America's closest ally.
The report called for the camp to be closed and said Britain welcomed President Bush's statement that the he hopes to see the camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, shut down.

Beckett's strong words came on the same day that the Court of Appeal upheld the government's refusal to seek the release of three of the nine British residents still held at Guantanamo.

Although the government previously had won the release of nine British citizens who had been held at Guantanamo, it argued that it had no duty to represent the interests of residents who were not citizens.

Prime Minister Tony Blair so far has gone no further in public than calling the camp an "anomaly" that sooner or later must end.

{{{"An anomaly," eh? And here I thought it was just plain illegal, unconstitutional, cruel, inhumane, degrading, immoral, unethical, and dishonorable, and wrong on multiple levels. "Anomaly" is not a word I would have applied to Gitmo.... See link for more.}}}

Diane Rehm Show today:

Iraqi Civilians

The conflict's toll on civilian life.

Guests
Hassan Mneimneh, director of documentation, Iraq Memory Foundation

Les Roberts, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, coauthor of a new study in the Lancet medical journal on Iraqi mortality since the 2003 invasion.

Anthony Cordesman, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

Maysoon Pachachi, founder, Independent Film And Television College in Baghdad

page containing audio link:
http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/06/10/12.php#11450

Progressives always seem to get stuck cleaning up the mess of the last Administration. Clinton took over a $300 billion dollar deficit and an economy stuck in a rut, just like today's from 41.

If the trends had continued from the Clinton years? I could have retired next yea and travelled. Now it'll be 12 more years and much more modest expectations. It's that different now, because of he who shall not be named.

I'm one of the few who does BETTER under the W regime. But I am not in a position to thank him and the Republicans either.

W is in favor of abolishing the SBA, which has given small businesses, including mine, some great opportunities that would not have been available otherwise. If W has his way, I will be out on the streets again.

And W's "tax cut?" It's tax RAISE for me.

The numbers do add up

The attempts to rubbish the Lancet study on the massive Iraqi death toll are devious hack-work. As Richard Horton's post says, the latest Johns Hopkins University study of mortality in Iraq, published in the Lancet is horrible news.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/daniel_davies/2006/10/how_to_not_lie_with_statistics.html

U.S. casualties surge amid worsening violence

33 Iraqis killed, including 11 in TV station raid; Ramadan violence soars

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 18 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - U.S. military casualties have surged in Iraq in recent weeks, with U.S. troops engaging in perilous urban sweeps to curb sectarian violence in Baghdad while facing unrelenting violence elsewhere.

At least 44 U.S. troops have been killed so far in October. At the current pace, the month would be the deadliest for U.S. forces since January 2005. After falling to 43 in July, the U.S. toll rose in August and September before spiking this month. The war’s average monthly U.S. death toll is 64.

The number of U.S. troops wounded in combat also has surged, with September’s total of more than 770 the highest since November 2004, when U.S. forces launched a ground offensive to clear insurgents from Fallujah.

Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, briefing in Baghdad on Thursday, attributed the rising casualties to insurgent violence that coincides with the current Islamic holy month of Ramadan, as well as more aggressive operations in Baghdad.

‘Worse before it gets better’
“We assume it will still get worse before it gets better. We expect violence to continue to increase over the next two weeks, until the end of Ramadan,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell said the 15,000 U.S. troops in Baghdad are focusing their efforts in the sprawling capital on curbing death squads and others responsible for sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites that the U.S. commanders believe could lead to civil war if left unchecked.

“Each time you conduct operations like that, you put your soldiers at much greater risk,” Caldwell said.

Army Gen. George Casey, top U.S. commander in Iraq, said on Wednesday the level of violence over the past few weeks has been the highest of the war.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15232508/

Darn that pesky Clinton, anyway!

As April pointed out, when he was president he actually had the stones to veto defective legislation before it could ruin the country. He had the charm to pull good laws out of a hat by getting peeps from both sides of the aisle to work together. He had the knowledge to understand the global dynamics of power, and the wisdom to use it effectively when it could be wielded openly and quietly when it could not.

How *dare* he be that good at his day job, that darn Clinton! Who the heck did he think he was, some kind of leader of the free world or something? I mean, *really*!

But now, of course, it's an entirely different barrel of fish of a different color down Washingtoon way. The current president smirks and stabs and becomes clumsily catatonic whenever he's made to go off script. Leader? More like a liter instead. (A liter of *what* is left as an exercise for the reader's imagination...)

And on the Hill, RoveCo operatives have disemboweled the legislative process so that every floor vote is a forced vote. All the cards are carefully pre-stacked before the decks are even brought to the table. No matter what's being voted on, the bills in question are so bent and banged-up by the time the yeas and nays get counted that they're automatically all lose-lose propositions.

For the blue team, every significant piece of legislation is twisted and torn in advance until it turns into a case of Dem'd if they do, Dem'd if they don't. Meanwhile, things are carefully arranged so that the Reposeurs are still going come out of it smelling like a rose either way.

Of course, the problems of two little parties doesn't amount to a hill of beans in Rove's crazy world. No matter how you slice it, everything that went wrong in Iraq, everything that went wrong at home, everything that went wrong in Foley's page dorms, everything that's going to go wrong between now and 1/20/09 was and is all Clinton's fault.

And it doesn't really matter *which* Clinton's fault it is, either -- could be Bill, could be Hillary, could be George, could even be DeWitt -- just so there's some kind of Clinton around that everything under the sun can be blamed on, that's the only thing that counts.

And that means RoveCo is bound to be right every time -- no matter what happens, everything is always all Clinton's fault.

Except for Clinton, of course. Clinton is all John Kerry's fault.

arbusto: mentiroso, mentiroso, pantalones en el fuego,
Otter

Darn Clinton. He actually had the nerve to be a great orator as well. Still is for that matter.

When Bush said yesterday that he didn't have a very big vocabulary, I got the feeling that was some lame effort at trying to rally the base.

I loved the 90s.

So Mark Warner isn't running for President ..
well he sure did throw a great party at the Stratosphere at Yearly Kos!

It's very early for people to speculate about the 2008 election, but guess he's opted out for sure.

Feel safer now?
Posted by Fe Bongolan at October 12, 2006 02:05 PM

Safer than what...? Safer than what it must have felt like when the Titanic was sinking into the sea...?

In a word... no.

I checked my dictionaries and my thesaurus... I can't find 'trust' or 'safe' anywhere. Someone must have deleted the words.

If we had responsible journalists in Lamestream Media who wouldn't try to spin Bu$hSpeak into what they think he means and if Lamestream Media didn't broadcast nothing but all neoCon con stories incessantly, then we'd have a chance to feel like we're at least floating again.

IF we can get a Dem majority in the House and/or Senate this fall, I just wonder if Lamestream Media will start to broadcast anything positive about Dems - sans the neoCon last word refuting anything any Dem says - perhaps the sheeple will get a hint of the difference between normal speaking where people actually say something that conveys a message and means something and Bu$hSpeak which normally conveys nothing but propagandistic phrases promoting fear and war. If we could get at least that much out of Lamestream Media - and if there were actually any investigative journalists who demanded straight answers to straight questions asked of anyone in the current administration - perhaps we'd stand a chance to get back to feeling somewhat normal, even if we're horrified by finding out the truth of what's gone on behind closed doors and in secret meetings (I think it's a lot worse than what we so far know about or what's been hinted at).

For me, nothing has felt 'normal' since the SCOTUS decision of 2000.

Gee, NonnyO, you mean "it's safe to trust me, I'm a Republican and I work for the government" doesn't do it for ya anymore?

then how about "I won't send national guard troops to occupy your front porch this year" instead,
Otter

Robin Williams talking politics on MSNBC's 'Hardball' this hour. Can't wait. Otter be priceless.

Yup. It's priceless, all right.

Be sure and catch the reruns and/or webruns later if you can't watch it right now.

"I won't send national guard troops to occupy your front porch this year"

Posted by: Otter at October 12, 2006 07:01 PM

Sorry, The Guard is busy getting shot at in another country for no good goddam reason, but we'll find another way to make your life miserable, don't you worry.

ok -- just wondering -- why did Mark Warner bow out of the presidential race -- really?

Cheney: Lieberman 'case' illustrates basic philosophical difference between two parties

by Ron Brynaert
Published: Thursday October 12, 2006

With less than a month to go before the elections, Vice President Dick Cheney offered up strong words of praise for Joe Lieberman, while taking shots at the "Dean Democrats" who have "purged" the Connecticut senator from the Democratic Party.

"The case of Joe Lieberman is a perfect illustration of the basic philosophical difference between the two parties in the year 2006," Cheney said at a Topeka, Kansas fundraiser for Rep. Jim Ryan on Thursday afternoon. "And it's a reminder that the elections on November 7th will have enormous consequences for this nation, one way or the other."

more from theDICK...
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Cheney_The_case_of_Joe_Lieberman_1012.html

dwahzon my family is from Va and had actually signed on to Warner's presidential run to work on Warner's IT staff,because they were assured he was running. They are numb with disappointment. Name id is a big deal on the national stage although JK didn't really have it before 2004 neither did Edwards. My Va family guess that he has decided to run for John Warner's seat in 2008, build a national voice and run in 2016 when he will be only 59 years old still relatively young. He just doesn't seem to have the personality to throw in the towel unless the monied people have told him they were already signed on to Kerry, Edwards and Hillary. We just need to get through the next 26 days and hope he can help carry Webb across the line. Its also conceivable he still could be on someone's 2008 ticket and it will be interesting to see who he he supports in '08 b/c Va b/c Va is definitely turning bright purple. That is my take.

Keith Olberman just reviewed a new book called Tempting Faith by David Kuho,which Olberman reports describes the cynical manipulation of Christian conservatives by Rove and Bush using vulgar language to laugh at Christians and deliberately use coded language while misrepresenting tax laws and other issues impt to conservative Christians. Sounds explosive perhaps we can get a copy of it next week Karen when it is released and comment further on it. Another shoe drops 26 days out.

Warner's withdrawal leaves Edwards as the likely sole southern candidate in '08.

Bush: Country 'better off' with Hastert in power
POSTED: 8:42 p.m. EDT, October 12, 2006

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- President Bush stood shoulder-to-shoulder with embattled House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Thursday, offering a powerful boost in his moment of need and declaring the country "better off" with Hastert in power.

"I am proud to be standing with the current speaker of the House who is going to be the future speaker of the House," Bush said as he opened a speech to raise money for two Illinois congressional candidates.

The $1.1 million fundraiser provided the first picture of Bush with Hastert since a scandal broke involving a Republican congressman pursuing underage male pages.

Although the president has spoken out in Hastert's defense -- tepidly at first and more directly at a White House news conference on the eve of the fundraiser -- their appearance together was an endorsement of Hastert when nearly half the country says he should resign.

Their long-scheduled fundraiser was sponsored by Hastert and came on the same day that the House ethics committee questioned ex-Rep. Mark Foley's chief of staff, Kirk Fordham, for five hours. Fordham has said he took complaints about Foley's conduct to Hastert's top aide three or four years ago.

Hastert's office has said it learned of Foley's conduct only last fall, and the speaker has said he first was notified in late September this year.

Bush defended him, without mentioning the Foley case.

"Speaker Denny Hastert has a long record of accomplishment," Bush said. "He's not one of these Washington politicians who spews a lot of hot air. He just gets the job done."

The crowd of Republican donors standing in a downtown Chicago hotel ballroom responded with loud applause.

"I have worked with him up close," Bush continued. "I know what it's like to work with a speaker who is determined to protect the United States of America and a speaker who wants to make sure that everybody who wants a job in America can find one.

"He has delivered results for the people," Bush said. "This country is better off with Denny Hastert as the speaker and it will be better off when he is the speaker the next legislative session."

moreons...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/12/bush.hastert.ap/index.html

Excuse me, but in what way is the country better off????

That depends, monkey -- which country do you have in mind?

we gotcher manifest destiny right here bucko,
Otter

Neil Young knows.

----------------

Let’s impeach the president for lying
And leading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door

He’s the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
And bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war

Let’s impeach the president for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones

What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government’s protection
Or was someone just not home that day?

Let’s impeach the president
For hijacking our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected

Thank god he’s cracking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There’s lot of people looking at big trouble
But of course the president is clean
Thank god

---------------

even if he *is* a canadian,
Otter

(Neil Young, that is, not the president)

That depends, monkey -- which country do you have in mind?

Posted by: Otter at October 12, 2006 09:14 PM

Why, the country club, of course.

What a bunch of privates.

Report: Head of U.K. army urges Iraq pullout
Says British troops’ presence exacerbates situation in Iraq and elsewhere

LONDON (AP) - Britain’s new army commander said British troops in Iraq are making the situation worse and must leave the country soon and he called Prime Minister Tony Blair’s policies “naive,” according to an interview published Thursday.

Gen. Richard Dannatt said the British military should “get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems,” according to the interview with the Daily Mail released on the tabloid’s Web site.

“Whatever consent we may have had in the first place” from the Iraqi people “has largely turned to intolerance,” he said, according to the report.

The Defense Ministry and Blair’s office said they could not immediately comment.

Dannatt’s comments are certain to infuriate Blair, who is President Bush’s key ally in the Iraq war.

It is highly unusual for a sitting British military commander to publicly criticize the government’s foreign policy.

Blair’s policies called ‘naive’
Dannatt, who took over as army commander in late August, described Blair’s Iraq policies as “naive.”

“We are in a Muslim country, and Muslims’ views of foreigners in their country are quite clear,” he said. “As a foreigner, you can be welcomed by being invited in a country, but we weren’t invited certainly by those in Iraq at the time.”

Dannatt was severely critical of British and American planning for postwar Iraq, describing the rationale behind the invasion as flawed.

“I think history will show that the planning for what happened after the initial successful war fighting phase was poor, probably based more on optimism than sound planning,” he said.

“The original intention was that we put in place a liberal democracy that was an exemplar for the region, was pro West and might have a beneficial effect on the balance within the Middle East.

“That was the hope, whether that was a sensible or naive hope history will judge. I don’t think we are going to do that. I think we should aim for a lower ambition.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15240385/

He's bloody right, ya know.

"What a bunch of privates."

Well, you know what they say...

parts is parts,
Otter

I say we broadcast the movie "Gandhi" continuously in Iraq until their clerics are shamed, and begin fasting for peace.

I loved the 90s.

Posted by: Carol at October 12, 2006 06:00 PM

So do I - so much so, that I am getting out my wrap skirts, fixing the buttons, and wearing them again.

Stylewise, I am more 1980s, but socioeconomically, the 1990s were the best we've had. Love him or hate him, Clinton knew what he was doing.

Scarborough had an interesting comment earlier (no transcript yet). He said when Bush went down to hurricaine-ravaged Florida (I didn't catch which hurricaine), they wouldn't let Foley appear with him(Bush).

Scarborough connected the dots on that as they KNEW Foley was poison for the president. Joe's guest said "yeah, because they even invite the democratic congressfolks when the President is in town".

So....not only did Hastert know about it, but Georgie must have known as well.

Nice.

Posted by: Otter at October 12, 2006 07:01 PM

Nah. Nothing the neoCons or neoCon spinmeisters tell us works for me in any way, shape, or form - as long as their lips are moving, I automatically assume they're lying or trying to explain how DimWit said what he didn't say with grammatically incorrect sentences. Except for a very few Freudian slips (like the dictator comment) from the mouth of Herr Boosh, I can't remember when any of them told us the truth for more than a mention in passing (and for a few hours after Katrina, until they got the official propaganda spin from the White House).

Are there any Guard troops left in the US? Aren't they (mostly) all in either Afghanistan (where my youngest nephew is) or Iraq...?

If NK did go off and say US-planned sanctions via the UN were a declaration of war and they attacked us... WHO, pray tell, Herr Boosh, and Secretary Rummy, would actually "protect" the people in this nation since the guard and reserve troops aren't even here where they belong, but in Iraq protecting oil wells, and in Afghanistan protecting oil pipelines...? Hmmmm....? Betcha didn't think THAT far ahead, did you, @$$holes?!?!?

To quote our esteemed furry friend, Otter: *fnord!*

curious if others here have watched the US Senate debates on CSPAN. I have one word to described Rick Santourm after watching his 1 hr debate tonight. NUTS

He was loud, rude, pointed his finger and abused the rules of the debate and the moderator throughout the debate who had to intercede 2-3 minutes past his alotted time and lecture him that he was violated their rules. Somehow he thinks that by shouting and being abusive he will win friends and votes. The last politician I saw who behaved so disrespectfully was Rick Lazio. Hopefully when November 8 comes along they will take him away in a rubber suit. The shrillnes of Santorum and Burns in their debates tonight represents how desperate their candidates must be.

Yeah, what Bubba said.

Let's put it this way... I ain't been standing in the rain outside his local offices during morning rush hours holding up a sign that say "Support Our Troops -- Throw Santorum Out!" fer nothin', ya know?

(And what's especially cool about this, you see, is that there's a school just across the street from his offices, too... so not only do tons of folks on their way to work have to drive right past our singing, signing, chanting motley little crew of nuns, peaceniks, Greens, progressives, and small-d democrats in the mornings... but they also have to slow way down to 15 mph and crawl on past us with plenty of time to read every word on the signs we wave at them while they're doing it... *bigottergrin*)

santorum better drive a truck back to washingtoon this time coz he'll need it to pack his stuff in,
Otter

Santorum has a word coined after him, you know.

Gee, he asked, playing the straight-otter here, what word would that be?

Posted by: Otter at October 13, 2006 01:06 AM

It's something you would have a diaper service get rid of.

(I looked it up).

Posted by: Otter at October 12, 2006 09:31 PM

Privates? These people only play at being military types.

Do you agree with British Gen. Sir Sir Richard Dannatt that foreign troops are exacerbating the security situation in Iraq? * 4291 responses

Yes.
82%

No.
14%

I'm not sure.
3.9%

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15246370/

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Bangladeshi microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work in advancing economic and social opportunities for the poor, particularly women.

The economist and the bank he founded will share the prize. They were cited for their efforts to help "create economic and social development from below" in their home country by using innovative economic programs such as microcredit lending.

Grameen Bank has been instrumental in helping millions of poor Bangladeshis, many of them women, improve their standard of living by letting them borrow small sums to start businesses.

Loans go toward buying items such as cows to start a dairy, chickens for an egg business, or mobile phones to start businesses where villagers who have no access to phones pay a small fee to make calls.

"Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life. Across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development," the Nobel Committee said in its citation.

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/10/13/nobel.peace.ap/index.html

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin about.

And when asked the same question, "Do you agree with British Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt that foreign troops are exacerbating the security situation in Iraq?", 97.4% of Americans had no idea what the word "exacerbating" meant (although 79.2% also thought it sounded like "something dirty" and "God will punish them if they do that"). The remaining 2.6% thought that Sir Richard Dannatt was "really good in that TV movie thing he did, what was it, 'The Thornbirds."

numb and numbers,
Otter

PRESS RELEASE

FRONTLINE EXAMINES FIRST TROUBLED YEAR IN IRAQ;
OBSERVERS SAY MISSTEPS SET CURRENT CRISIS IN MOTION

FRONTLINE presents
THE LOST YEAR IN IRAQ
Tuesday, October 17, 2006, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS

http://www.pbs.org/frontline/yeariniraq/

In the first weeks after the statue of Saddam Hussein fell, a group of young American bureaucrats led by Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III set off to establish democracy in Iraq. "We had an ambitious goal," Bremer tells FRONTLINE, "to try to bring better government to Iraq and help them rebuild their economy [and] their country." One year later, as Bremer made a secret exit to evade insurgent attacks, the group left behind a thriving insurgency, economic collapse and much of its idealism. "Our grand initiative there [was] to bring democracy to Iraq," says Rajiv Chandrasekaran, former Baghdad bureau chief for The Washington Post. Instead, says Chandrasekaran, "we were leaving with our tail between our legs."

Today, as America looks for an exit strategy, FRONTLINE examines the initial, critical decisions of the U.S.-led regime in Baghdad in The Lost Year in Iraq, airing Oct. 17, 2006, at 9 P.M. on PBS (check local listings). From the same team that produced Rumsfeld's War, The Torture Question and The Dark Side, the film is based on more than 30 interviews, most of them with the officials charged with building a new and democratic Iraq.

The Lost Year in Iraq begins on April 9, 2003, as American troops help a crowd of Iraqis topple a statue of Saddam Hussein. In Washington there was celebration, but in Baghdad the looting was beginning. Jay Garner, the retired general picked by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to lead reconstruction, was forced to wait in Kuwait for authorization to enter Iraq. He and his team had arrived from Washington without computers, telephones or a plan. "Everybody was focused on the war; they were focused on regime change," Garner tells FRONTLINE. "That took all of their energy. I wasn't the central focus." On the day Garner finally arrived in Baghdad, he received a phone call from Rumsfeld: He was being replaced by L. Paul Bremer.

Bremer, who arrived with sweeping plans to remake the country, had a young and inexperienced team, but his staff had passed a political litmus test in Washington. "It's a children's crusade ... of former Republican campaign workers, White House interns [and] Heritage Foundation people," says Tom Ricks of The Washington Post. Col. T.X. Hammes, a counterinsurgency expert and adviser to Iraq's Interior Ministry, felt Bremer's staff could have been better trained. "We had so many of these very, very young people that are dedicated Americans, brave enough to take a chance and go into Iraq to try to do something right for their country," he tells FRONTLINE. "But [they] didn't get any training; they have no background. ... And yet we put them in charge of planning at [the] national level."

As an example, Hammes recalls meeting the Coalition Provisional Authority's head of planning for the Ministry of the Interior. He was 25 years old and in his first job out of college. The young staffer told Hammes his team consisted of four fraternity brothers. "I never in my life thought I would encounter 'frat brothers' and 'strategic planners' in the same sentence," Hammes says.

more...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/yeariniraq/#press

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - A rare early October snowstorm left parts of the Great Lakes and Midwest blanketed with 2 feet of snow Friday morning, prompting widespread blackouts, closing schools and halting traffic.

The snow downed scores of tree limbs and toppled power lines, leaving more than 220,000 customers without electricity in western New York.

By early Friday, 14 inches of snow had been recorded at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, with reports of 2 feet elsewhere, said Tom Paone, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The snowfall was expected to continue throughout the morning, he said.

---------------

A spokesperson for the re-election campaign of embattled Republican Congressman Tom Reynolds immediately released a statement warning local voters that this is only a first taste of what will happen to Buffalo for four more years if a Democrat gets elected this year instead. Meanwhile, a phalanx of right-wing radio talk show hosts joined together in blaming the rare early-season blizzard on President Clinton's failed economic policies.

where are the snow jobs of yesteryear,
Otter

thanks otter for everything you are doing to rid us of the stinch in Pa. Let me know off line or on the irc, if there is anything I can help with from afar as air fare is too close in now. Sounds like you were out in the rain while I watched your nut job scream into the camera last night from my cozy living room, but it was really bizarre to watch. Curious if you caught a rerun on CSPAN?

Posted by: Otter at October 13, 2006 08:46 AM

Take a Linda Tripp, take a Linda Tripp, take a Linda Tripp with me.

Scorn Flakes.

I wanna catch the Scumtorum rerun, pls post when that foul airs.

Grazzi.

Krugman: Republican majority will end on Election Day

RAW STORY
Published: Thursday October 12, 2006

Paul Krugman expresses his belief that absolute Republican rule in Congress is at an end in a column that will appear in Friday's edition of the New York Times.

"The conventional wisdom says that the Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives next month, but only by a small margin," writes Krugman. "I've been looking at the numbers, however, and I believe this conventional wisdom is almost all wrong."

Citing recent polls, ongoing troubles in Iraq, and the "sudden realization by many voters that the self-proclaimed champions of moral values are hypocrites," Krugman foresees that "the permanent Republican majority will end in a little over three weeks."

Some still await a Karl Rove October surprise, the subject of a recent article in RAW STORY, but Krugman says that "unless the Bush administration is keeping Osama bin Laden in a freezer somewhere, a majority of Americans will vote Democratic this year."

Excerpts from the column follow...

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Krugman_Republican_majority_will_end_on_1012.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6046684.stm
US rejects UK Guantanamo comments
The US government has rebuffed UK calls to close its controversial detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The UK foreign minister said it was unacceptable on human rights grounds and ineffective in fighting terrorism.

But a US spokesman said the camp was needed to house "some very dangerous people", including those who were behind the 9/11 attacks.

Meanwhile fresh allegations of abuse of inmates by US prison guards at the camp have emerged.

Marine Sgt Heather Cerveny, who went to the base three weeks ago as a legal aide to a military lawyer, said five navy guards described in detail how they beat up detainees.

{More on link. BTW, I thought the only one not yet dead who was behind the 9/11 attacks was OBL... and he's still free....? Wasn't going after OBL in Afghanistan allegedly the sole reason the dictator wannabe was granted the AUMF? (In my mind, I'm not sure Moussaoui had anything to do with it, that he was bragging, and that's what landed him in prison)....}

Posted by: monkey at October 13, 2006 09:23 AM

From Krugman's keyboard to the eyes of the Goddess...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6046950.stm
US forces killed ITN man in Iraq
A coroner has recorded a verdict of unlawful killing on ITN reporter Terry Lloyd, who was shot dead by US forces in southern Iraq in March 2003.
An inquest heard Mr Lloyd was killed by a US bullet near Basra. His interpreter died and his cameraman is missing.

The inquest heard Mr Lloyd, 50 and originally from Derby, was hit while in a makeshift ambulance, having already been hurt in American-Iraqi crossfire.

{Click on link for more.]

Different version of same story.... (Oh, and BTW, this story was mentioned in Lamestream Media. Not in depth, and it probably won't be talked about again, but it was mentioned with a sound byte last night. I wish this story would get some air time....)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061013/ap_on_re_eu/britain_reporter_inquest
Coroner: U.S. killed British TV reporter
OXFORD, England - A coroner ruled Friday that U.S. forces unlawfully killed a British television journalist in the opening days of the Iraq war.

Excerpt:

The coroner said Friday that a civilian drove up in a minivan, pulled a U-turn and picked up four wounded Iraqi soldiers, then saw Lloyd with a press card around his neck and helped him into the van. Lloyd was shot in the head as the van drove off toward a hospital, the coroner said.

Demoustier said after the ruling that the inquest had not made clear whether the bullet that killed Lloyd was fired by a U.S. tank or helicopter. He said the forces in a tank would have been able to see that they were firing at a civilian vehicle, but a helicopter would not.

The U.S. Embassy in London said it had no immediate reaction to the ruling.

Lloyd's widow, Lynn, in a statement read by her lawyer, said U.S. forces "allowed their soldiers to behave like trigger-happy cowboys in an area in which there were civilians traveling."

She called the killing a war crime — "a despicable, deliberate, vengeful act."

Lloyd and the three other ITN crew members were some of the few Western reporters who covered the fighting on their own, while most others were embedded with U.S. or British forces.

Lebanese interpreter Hussein Osman also was killed in the ITN crew, and cameraman Fred Nerac remains missing and presumed dead.

U.S. authorities didn't allow servicemen to testify at the inquest. Several submitted statements that the coroner ruled inadmissible.

The court watched a video Tuesday, filmed by a U.S. serviceman attached to one of the tanks accused of firing at the reporters' cars. The tape opens with images of Lloyd's vehicle and the Iraqi truck burning amid gunfire. The tanks drive to the cars and inspect them. A minivan — possibly the ambulance — appears and more shots are fired.

At the end of the tape, a U.S. soldier shouts, "It's some media personnel! That's media down there!"

A forensic examiner said the first 15 minutes of the tape may have been erased.

In Britain, inquests take place when a person dies violently, unexpectedly, or of unknown causes. In the case of an overseas death, the inquest is held in the first English jurisdiction where the body is returned.

{Click on link for more.}

IF this story got some Lamestream Media air time so close on the heels of the Foley Follies.... hmmmmmmm....

The United States as Defined by the Founding Fathers No Longer Exists
By Paul Craig Roberts
When does “collateral damage” so dwarf combatant deaths that war becomes genocide?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15274.htm

The Assassins of Truth
By Charles Sullivan
I charge that the government is engaged in immoral and criminal conduct on a global scale. That it does not conform to the norms of civil society; that it is sociopathic, and flagrantly violates domestic and international law. The form of government that we have does not serve the citizenry—it preys upon them. It is not a government of the people, for the people. It is government of the corporations, for the corporations, by the corporations—a corporate Plutocracy.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15282.htm

The End of the U.S. as a Civilized Nation
By Ted Rall
The recently passed Military Commissions Act removes the United States from the ranks of civilized nations. It codifies racial and political discrimination, legalizes kidnapping and torture of those the government deems its political enemies, and eliminates habeas corpus--the ancient precept that prevents the police from arresting and holding you without cause--a basic protection common to all (other) modern legal systems, and one that dates to the Magna Carta.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15283.htm

The Dumbing Down of America
By Manuel Valenzuela
Something is amiss in the great nation called America. Ominous sirens warning this reality can be heard emanating loudly through invisible winds of change circulating our towns and cities. The American people are being strangulated; unbeknownst to the masses they are being transformed and conditioned, becoming the entity the elite have long sought, the culmination of decades of social engineering designed to make of hundreds of millions the slaves of times past and the automatons of the future.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15280.htm

Baker's Panel Rules Out Iraq Victory

By ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
October 12, 2006

WASHINGTON — A commission formed to assess the Iraq war and recommend a new course has ruled out the prospect of victory for America, according to draft policy options shared with The New York Sun by commission officials.

Currently, the 10-member commission — headed by a secretary of state for President George H.W. Bush, James Baker — is considering two option papers, "Stability First" and "Redeploy and Contain," both of which rule out any prospect of making Iraq a stable democracy in the near term.

More telling, however, is the ruling out of two options last month. One advocated minor fixes to the current war plan but kept intact the long-term vision of democracy in Iraq with regular elections. The second proposed that coalition forces focus their attacks only on Al Qaeda and not the wider insurgency.

Instead, the commission is headed toward presenting President Bush with two clear policy choices that contradict his rhetoric of establishing democracy in Iraq. The more palatable of the two choices for the White House, "Stability First," argues that the military should focus on stabilizing Baghdad while the American Embassy should work toward political accommodation with insurgents. The goal of nurturing a democracy in Iraq is dropped.

more...
http://tinyurl.com/upjrr

Bush Confounded by the 'Unacceptable'
President Wields Word More Freely as His Frustration Rises and His Influence Ebbs

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 13, 2006; A10

President Bush finds the world around him increasingly "unacceptable."

In speeches, statements and news conferences this year, the president has repeatedly declared a range of problems "unacceptable," including rising health costs, immigrants who live outside the law, North Korea's claimed nuclear test, genocide in Sudan and Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Bush's decision to lay down blunt new markers about the things he deems intolerable comes at an odd time, a phase of his presidency in which all manner of circumstances are not bending to his will: national security setbacks in North Korea and Iraq, a Congress that has shrugged its shoulders at his top domestic initiatives, a favorability rating mired below 40 percent.

But a survey of transcripts from Bush's public remarks over the past seven years shows the president's worsening political predicament has actually stoked, rather than diminished, his desire to proclaim what he cannot abide. Some presidential scholars and psychologists describe the trend as a signpost of Bush's rising frustration with his declining influence.

-snip-

Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton -- often pilloried by Republicans as irresolute -- also labeled many events "unacceptable" or "not acceptable," particularly after the political tables turned against him. When Democrats controlled Congress in 1994, for example, he used those terms four times, according to transcripts of his public comments. In 1995, after his party lost control of both houses, Clinton used the terms 20 times; his annual usages thereafter fluctuated between eight and 22, but they totaled only 86 percent of Bush's usage in a comparable six-year period.

Clinton's peeves were different from Bush's, and a quarter of his uses of the "unacceptable" label after 2004 were aimed at providing leverage in his budget battles with the Republican-led Congress. Clinton also used the label in denouncing poverty, crime, discrimination against women, inadequate health care, school violence, racial disparities and the actions of medical insurance companies. Abroad, he labeled as unacceptable the behavior of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein unacceptable on four occasions.

Moisés Naím, the editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine, said there is a relationship between "how strident and extreme" the language of many leaders is and how limited their options are. For Bush, Naím said, "this comes at a time when the world is convinced he is weaker than ever."

Many foreigners think the United States is losing Iraq and are no longer in awe of U.S. military might, Naím said, and at home, Bush is so weak that Republican candidates are wary of appearing with him. "The world has noticed," Naím said. "What is happening is that a lot that was deemed unacceptable [by Bush] now has become normal and tolerable."

more...
http://tinyurl.com/y3c4a2

Air America Radio, a liberal talk and news radio network, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a network official told The Associated Press.

U.S. Rep. Bob Ney pleads guilty to bribery charges tied to Abramoff scandal.

MOnkey
It may be a good financial move for Air America to file bankruptcy. They probably expanded too fast. It works for the airlines & it worked for nursing homes in which I worked for a decade. The court determines which debtors get their money first & some debt can be written off.

Remember also that the capitalists will well the rope to hang themselves, if they can make a buck. Clear Channel is said to be investing in liberal talk radio, because there is a demand for it. Same reason they work with rock promoters.

It's curious that Air America has not taken off. I tried listening early on, and quickly lost interest - but I tend not to listen to radio at home, and am rarely captive in traffic, in an automobile, where listening would make more sense.

I've long believed that talk radio was primarily a conservative medium, inasmuch as it appealed to shut-ins and people who generally find leaving the safe confines of the familiar a threatening experience, especially with regard to non-drive time audiences. It's also a largely passive experience - especially when you factor in how difficult it is to actually get through to a host, and how quickly they can dispatch you once you actually get through. My theory is that people who prefer passivity are much more likely to gravitate to rants about how the world is going to hell in a hand-basket, and how only a return to "tradition" will solve a problem.

Edmund Burke is thought of as being a father of conservative thought - and Burke puts great stock in the value of long-established tradition. Of course, when I think of "tradition", I'm more likely to think of the sentiments of Winston Churchill - who, when challenged by Lord Fisher on how a proposed policy would violate British Navy tradition, responded:

"And what are the traditions of the British Navy: rum, sodomy, and the lash."

I'd bet that liberal and progressives spend a lot more time on the net, which in contrast to radio, is a decidedly interactive medium. We don't want to be part of the Amen chorus for a radio shock jock, we want to lead our own choirs.

Full text of "Will The Levee Break", the Paul Krugman column that monkey mentioned a few posts back, is available here:

http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/

just gotta love that radical hillbilly chic,
Otter

Posted by: Matthew Carnicelli at October 13, 2006 12:16 PM

Man, that was spot effen on,

A Choir of Angles

Bravissimo...