Monday Moaning Open Thread

Sorry about the lack of comments from me, you all, but I'm now in countdown mode...

3 more weeks
3 more weeks
3 more wekks...

3 more weeks Sparrow? Hurry on 3 weeks.

The question above: It's what I ask myself on a daily basis.

Moaning at midnight -- that brings to mind HW....

Not the right post.

Oops - that didn't work. Trying again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWOT6lBknx0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EerMBlfEAuw&feature=related

I can't play banjo but Lord that makes me want to go out andc buy a Telecaster.

News today is focusing on twisting Obama's intent regarding his statement on the bitterness that small town folks feel about their job situations and economic circumstances.

Anything for a rating.

Living in small town America the only things I've heard people be bitter about is everything that's transpired since 2000 when the "compassionate" conservatives took reign.

Roo,

Teli is reporting that Bush is meeting the Pope at the airport, and hosting a dinner in his honor at the White House this week.

Arrrggghhhh

In my own personal opinion, it rather appears that MSNBC is negative today regarding Obama.

I'm writing them.

I have been reading a bit about the elaborate steps which the United Nations (and the U.S.) took in setting up the rules for the post-WWII war crimes trials at Nurenberg. The complete opposite of the process we're using for alleged terrorists today.

I would prefer immediate impeachment, followed by war crimes trials.

While we're on the subject of criminals living in front of us in broad daylight, I have just posted a new entry on the criminality of the campaign finance system we have now, and the need for full public financing of all campaigns. I've never lived in a state where judges were elected, but using private contributions to determine who sits in the judge's chair is a truly horrendous practice. Doesn't Scott Turow (sp?) have a novel out about corrupting a judicial election?

I would prefer immediate impeachment, followed by war crimes trials.

Amen

Arrrggghhhh,,

Wonder if the head of the Catholic Church has the balls to refuse an invitation from a Psychopath, that plundered the resources and murdered 1 million innocents of a Sovereign Nation.

That is why I believe the church sucks.

The Catholic church does not suck because of whom the pope has dinner with.

The Pope after all is a NAZI. I know, I know, he HAD to be a nazi, and he really did not like being a nazi when he was one, so it is ok.

Oh, and then there is the organized nature of worldwide pedophilia they offer.

Add all that to men sitting in six thousand dollar shoes on golden thrones with golden sceptures in diamond encrusted hands while paying lip service to the 'poor', and bam! No one trusts or likes you.

If georgie only could kill a few million more, the Catholics could cannonize him.

But we all know no matter how many he kills, his body count will never get near the piles of bodies the Catholic church has left behind.

I would prefer immediate impeachment, followed by war crimes trials.

Amen

And Hell Yeah!

Carter Denied Security During Israel Visit

Source: Reuters

Israel's secret service has declined to assist U.S. agents guarding former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during a visit.
Monday, April 14, 2008

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's secret service has declined to assist U.S. agents guarding former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during a visit in which Israeli leaders have shunned him, U.S. sources close to the matter said on Monday.

Carter angered the Israeli government with plans to meet Hamas's top leader, Khaled Meshaal, in Syria, and for describing Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories as "a system of apartheid" in a 2006 book.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who brokered Israel's first peace treaty with an Arab neighbor, Egypt, signed in 1979, met Israel's largely ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, on Sunday but was shunned by the political leadership, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Another source described the snub as an "unprecedented" breach between the Israeli Shin Bet and the U.S. Secret Service, which protects all current and former U.S. presidents, as well as Israeli leaders when they visit the United States.

http://www.880therevolution.com/cc-common/news/sections...

Carter may be better off without them.

Rabbi Eliyahu: Life of one yeshiva boy worth more than 1,000 Arabs

Mass Jerusalem service marks one-month anniversary of deadly attack on Mercaz Harav rabbinical seminary. 'We do not seek vengeance, we seek retaliation,' says yeshiva head says

Kobi Nahshoni

Some 1,000 people attended a memorial service at the Mercaz Harav rabbinical seminary Thursday, marking the one-month anniversary of the murderous attack which claimed the lives of eight young men.

Also attending the service were many prominent rabbis of the Religious Zionist Movement, who were not shy about expressing their rage against the government's policy.

Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, head of the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, chose to explain the attack by saying that "the Torah and the land of Israel are acquired only through agony."

Former Sephardi chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu called on the government to decree that for every life lost in the attack another yeshiva and township will be formed.

Even when we seek revenge, it is important to make one thing clear – the life of one yeshiva boy is worth more than the lives of 1,000 Arabs.

"The Talmud states that if gentiles rob Israel of silver they will pay it back in gold, and all that is taken will be paid back in folds, but in cases like these there is nothing to pay back, since as I said – the life of one yeshiva boy is worth more than the lives of 1,000 Arabs," added Rabbi Eliyahu.

Ramat Gan's chief rabbi, Yaacov Ariel, chose to deliver a more moderate message: "We do not seek vengeance, we seek retaliation. The terrorist's house should have been demolished immediately, regardless of the law. It should have been done because it was a matter of life and death – the deterrence could help save future lives."

"We are against killing innocent people or harming children," he added, "but once terrorists hide behind children, we have to strike back. The blood of those living in Sderot is worth just as much as the blood of those the terrorists hide behind."

Mercaz Harav will be holding a vigil in memory of those killed in the attack all through Thursday night.

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3527410,00.html

Seattle Center was swarmed by orange school busses this morning as the Dalai Lama spoke to children from 43 schools in the Key Arena at the Seattle Center. They changed peace slogans and clasped hands over their hearts to drumbeats. Some of the older children were aware of the issue of Tibet. I walked around the Arena and read the full body search guidelines. I had no ticket, so went inside the nearby Center House and watched on closed circuit television. The Dalai Lama talked about compassion and how it can help end violence. He talked about parental love, nurturing, and forgiveness. The Dalai Lama is on a five day visit here under the auspices of an event called "The Seeds of Compassion." I bought the t-shirt.

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive. The Dalai Lama

I wish there was a way to transcend earthly politics and earthly spirituality.

Republican Congressman Geoff Davis of Kentucky, speaking Saturday night about Barack Obama:

"I'm going to tell you something: That boy's finger does not need to be on the button," Davis said. "He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country."

That pretty much confirms what I've been thinking all day. "Elitist" may actually mean "uppity." We progressive Democrats are likewise insulted, and held hostage by those "swing" voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania and Florida, where the elections can be kept close through voter suppression so that they can be manipulated by Diebold machines and other sleazy tactics.

It's a real shame when candidates from both parties team up and use the Republican playbook.

I'm fed up as hell.

I wish we were sending the Moonie State governor (AKA President Lee Myung-Bak) back to his sorry state, as opposed to welcoming him to the mainland US.

Israelis and Palestinians.

Both cowards and bloodthirsty killers.

I have sympathy for neither, unlike most liberals who side with the Palestinian barbarians for no good reason.

This one for NMP...

Berlusconi is back in power in Italy.

These right-wing international conglomerates must be stopped.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080414/ap_on_re_eu/italy_election

My latest Times blast...(the older I get, the more I feel like I'm becoming an Old Testament prophet, or worse yet, Cassandra...)

****

Americans ultimately get the government that they deserve. Largely uneducated white voters across America were responsible for the election / re-election of George W. Bush. His disastrous economic and foreign policies will likely be causing them continuing pain over the next decade (and perhaps beyond). At some point, some politician or clergyman needs to have the moral courage to tell these Americans to put down their guns and Bibles, turn off the football game, and do something to improve their minds. They can pick them up again later. Obama was being kind. These Americans clearly lack the ability to think their way through the often-daunting challenges presented by the modern world - and those challenges are not going away. They will not be prayed away. Either this country evolves or it will descend to the status of a second or third world nation.

We are the progeny of the greatest intellectual revolution in the history of the world - and yet we act as if a commitment to intellectual development is tantamount to snobbery. If this is Democracy, then it’s no wonder that experiments in Republican Government have always failed. The “people” may be sovereign, but as history amply demonstrates, the people are not always right. If Hillary and McCain lack the moral courage to tell Americans the truth about the roots of our current predicament, and prefer to pander to the sensibilities of drowning men and women - drowning in a sea of economic and political currents that they don’t even begin to understand - then they are simply an extension of the problem.

Damn, Matthew, that was spot on... although it did have a lot of big words in it ;-)

Back in 2000, I condensed a similar notion down to bumper sticker-tshirt-slogan length (just enough words to provide clarity to the cranially under-endowed)...

It' The Electorate. Stupid.

Obama would ask his AG to "immediately review" potential of crimes in Bush White House

Tonight I had an opportunity to ask Barack Obama a question that is on the minds of many Americans, yet rarely rises to the surface in the great ruckus of the 2008 presidential race -- and that is whether an Obama administration would seek to prosecute officials of a former Bush administration on the revelations that they greenlighted torture, or for other potential crimes that took place in the White House.

Obama said that as president he would indeed ask his new Attorney General and his deputies to "immediately review the information that's already there" and determine if an inquiry is warranted -- but he also tread carefully on the issue, in line with his reputation for seeking to bridge the partisan divide. He worried that such a probe could be spun as "a partisan witch hunt." However, he said that equation changes if there was willful criminality, because "nobody is above the law."

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Barack_on_torture.html

Months-delayed U.S. Embassy ready in Baghdad

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After months of delay, the United States has established an embassy in Baghdad, the State Department said Monday.

The sprawling facility will provide secure housing for U.S. personnel who currently live and work in Saddam Hussein's former Republican Palace, which has increasingly come under fire inside the Green Zone.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told reporters Friday he expected officials to begin moving into the facility in late May or early June.

A recent spike in insurgent attacks that killed several Americans in the Green Zone prompted the State Department to order U.S. Embassy personnel not to leave reinforced buildings. A shortage of such space has forced some diplomats to temporarily sleep at the new embassy compound, despite the lack of occupancy certification.

"It's been a difficult few weeks, rockets are bouncing off your buildings, and maintaining focus can be an occasional challenge," Crocker said. "We worry a lot less about formal safety certifications and a lot more about ensuring people have a place to sleep where rockets couldn't get at them."

The Vatican-size compound, which will be the largest U.S. diplomatic facility in the world, was scheduled to open in September at a cost of $592 million, but the price tag is expected to rise to more than $730 million.

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/04/14/embassy.baghdad/index.html

From one Republican Palace to another...

"...unlike most liberals who side with the Palestinian barbarians for no good reason."

Oh there is a good reason.

The problem is picking a side and expecting our tax dollars to pay for someone elses constant civil war and military occupation.

PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
October 12, 2000

JIM LEHRER: One of you is about to be elected the leader of the single most powerful nation the world-- economically, financially, militarily, diplomatically, you name it. Have you formed any guiding principles for exercising this enormous power?

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: I have. I have. The first question is what's in the best interest of the United States? What's in the best interest of our people? When it comes to foreign policy, that will be my guiding question. Is it in our nation's interests? Peace in the Middle East is in our nation's interests. Having a hemisphere that is free for trade and peaceful is in our nation's interests. Strong relations in Europe is in our nation's interests. I've thought a lot about what it means to be the President. I also understand an administration is not one person but an administration is dedicated citizens who are called by the President to serve the country, to serve a cause greater than self. And so I've thought about an administration of people who represent all America, but people who understand my compassionate and conservative philosophy.

*

I'm not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say this is the way it's got to be. We can help. And maybe it's just our difference in government, the way we view government. I mean I want to empower people. I want to help people help themselves, not have government tell people what to do. I just don't think it's the role of the United States to walk into a country and say, we do it this way, so should you.

*

If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us; if we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us. And our nation stands alone right now in the world in terms of power, and that's why we've got to be humble, and yet project strength in a way that promotes freedom.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec00/for-policy_10-12.html

Ok, now I have heard everything.

“Love with robots will be as normal as love with other humans,” Levy writes, “while the number of sexual acts and lovemaking positions commonly practiced between humans will be extended, as robots teach us more than is in all of the world’s published sex manuals combined.”

Levy goes on to imagine a world of robot prostitutes, or “sexbots,” which would offer people a chance to practice their technique before entering a human relationship. “With a robot prostitute,” he writes, “the control of disease is implicit — simply remove the active parts and put them in the disinfecting machine.”

http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/9283.html

I am trademarking the names "HoBot" & 'iHo" immediately!

Ally
I saw that about Berlusconi (the rock star plastic surgery media magnate)
- thanks for thinking of me. It's a small consolation that we aren't the only country with political problems not excepting extreme political ambition and pandering.

Oh my, looky looky...

Pope Benedict XVI Says He Is 'Deeply Ashamed' of Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal

Ohhhh, that is sooo sweet of that nazi!

Except we all know he was not too damn ashamed when he instructed all the priests to hide the abuse allegations until the statute of limitations runs out.

Guess it depends on what 'deeply' means eh?

WASHINGTON (AP) - Inflation at the wholesale level soared in March at nearly triple the rate that had been expected as the costs of energy and food both climbed rapidly.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that wholesale prices rose by 1.1 percent last month, the second largest increase in the past 33 years, exceeded only by a 2.6 percent rise last November. Analysts had been expecting a much more moderate 0.4 percent rise in wholesale prices for the month.

Core inflation, which excludes energy and food, was better behaved last month, rising by just 0.2 percent, down from a worrisome 0.5 percent rise in February.

For the past 12 months, wholesale prices are up by 6.9 percent and core inflation is up by 2.7 percent, the biggest year-over-year increase in nearly two years.

The inflation pressures are occurring at a time when the overall economy is slowing and many analysts believe may have toppled into a recession. That raises concerns that the country could be facing another bout of stagflation, the malady that last occurred in the 1970s when economic growth stagnated but inflation kept rising.

Such a development would put the Federal Reserve in a bind. The central bank has been cutting interest rates in an effort to combat the current slowdown. However, if inflation pressures keep rising, it might be forced to stop cutting interest rates for fear that it would make inflation worse.

For March, energy prices jumped 2.9 percent, the biggest increase since November. The price of gasoline was up 1.3 percent while natural gas rose by 4.2 percent. Home heating oil shot up by 13.1 percent and diesel fuel, used to power the nation’s trucking fleet, increased by 15.3 percent.

Analysts believe the economy will be hit with more energy pressures in coming months, reflecting the fact that crude oil costs are remaining at record levels above $111 per barrel.

Food costs rose by 1.2 percent in March, reflecting big increases in the price of vegetables, rice, and beef.

WTF?

Polygamist sect gets millions from U.S. government

FT. WORTH, Tex. _American taxpayers have unwittingly helped finance a polygamist sect that is now the focus of a massive child abuse investigation in West Texas, with a business tied to the group receiving a nearly $1 million loan from the federal government and $1.2 million in military contracts.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/33510.html

Faith based pedophilia. I admit I am a little sickened just now.

Why can mormons and catholics just have sex with robots and leave the kids alone already?

This has to stop, bring on the Ho-Bots!

“Out of Touch”: First Major Anti-McCain Ad Airs Today

It is totally FABULOUS! Go watch...

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/15/out-of-touch-first-major-anti-mccain-ad-airs-tomorrow/

mccrazy is toast if we can ever get hillary to shut up and just go away.

So much for the liberal media.

John McCain and Barack Obama both appeared before the nation's newspaper editors yesterday. The putative Republican presidential nominee was given a box of doughnuts and a standing ovation. The likely Democratic nominee was likened to a terrorist.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/14/AR2008041402633_pf.html

monkey said:

Damn, Matthew, that was spot on... although it did have a lot of big words in it ;-)

****

Glad you like it. The blog moderators at the Times thought differently, and it was never published. I give up.

Obama on Charlie Rose on 11.23.04

The Link:

http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2004/11/23/1/an-hour-with-illinois-senator-barack-obama

Christy

Polygamist sect gets millions from U.S. government

If the Moonies can get taxpayer money, so can they.

A tip of the hat to Christy, who discovered the Philly Daily News story about Obama's willingness to look into Bush's crimes if he is elected.

Now I just want to know what Obama has to look for: why can't he just start naming the crimes we already know all about? See the front page3 for more ranting.

Thanks Richard.

I really don't know how to describe what I just posted, but I think all of you should see it...

http://christysartblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/why.html

I don't even have the words anymore.

Iraq Army Unit Flees Post Despite US Soldiers' Pleas
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
Published: April 16, 2008
BAGHDAD — A company of Iraqi soldiers abandoned their positions on Tuesday night in Sadr City, defying American soldiers who implored them to hold the line against Shiite militias.
The retreat left a crucial stretch of road on the front lines undefended for hours and led to a tense series of exchanges between American soldiers and about 50 Iraqi troops who were fleeing.
Capt. Logan Veath, a company commander in the 25th Infantry Division, pleaded with the Iraqi major who was leading his troops away from the Sadr City fight, urging him to return to the front.
“If you turn around and go back up the street those soldiers will follow you,” Captain Veath said. “If you tuck tail and cowardly run away they will follow up that way, too.”
Captain Veath’s pleas failed, and senior American and Iraqi commanders mounted an urgent effort to regain the lost ground. An elite Iraqi unit was rushed in and with the support of the Americans began to fight its way north.
This episode was a blow to the American effort to push the Iraqis into the lead in the struggle to wrest control of parts of Sadr City from the Mahdi Army militia and what Americans and Iraqis say are Iranian-backed groups.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/world/middleeast/16sadr.html?_r=1&ex=1365998400&en=3508851cadc301a5&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

The post that the NY Times, in their infinite Grey Lady wisdom, chose to censor yesterday is now up on Daily Kos. God knows what the Caspar Milktoast crowd would have done with Thomas Paine...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/16/71038/3084/631/496684

How can this nation have gone from "the progeny of the greatest intellectual revolution in the history of the world", as it was so elegantly stated earlier, to complete and utter ignorance in such a relatively short period of time?

Riddle Me That

Because the people in control now have been in control for some 20 years, and have been using flat out nazi propaganda on us.

And then there is the fact every politician wants an apathetic nation. Why lett 300 million vote when you can only control the votes of 30 million? Same reason no one in DC wants true and fair elections.

It has been deliberate, covert, and wildly successful.

And now, we are in hell and dick cheney is the devil.

I wouls say nothing in this country will change until everyone that watches tv more than once a month has been deprogrammed.

Literally reverse the brain washing.

And on the Obama thing, I am glad he said it, but now I am REALLY nervous.

All the power brokers are implicated with georgie. Investigating georgie will lead back to them, and they AIN'T gonna let that happen.

If I were one of georgies butt boys, I would be doing everything, EVERYTHING up too and including murder to stop him.

Otherwise, they are on the hook for war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

By the way, go look at huffingtonpost, at the pic of gergie, and the pope.

Now why on earth would a REBEL FLAG be flying behind these two men?

Guess the nazi flag would have been just too damn obvious even with the nazis standing in front of it.

Hillary Clinton On Southern Working Class Whites In 1995: "Screw 'Em"

During the past week, Sen. Hillary Clinton has presented herself as a working class populist, the politician in touch with small town sentiments, compared to the elitism of her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama.

But a telling anecdote from her husband's administration shows Hillary Clinton's attitudes about the "lunch-bucket Democrats" are not exactly pristine.

In January 1995, as the Clintons were licking their wounds from the 1994 congressional elections, a debate emerged at a retreat at Camp David. Should the administration make overtures to working class white southerners who had all but forsaken the Democratic Party? The then-first lady took a less than inclusive approach.

"Screw 'em," she told her husband. "You don't owe them a thing, Bill. They're doing nothing for you; you don't have to do anything for them."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/16/hillary-clinton-on-workin_n_97017.html

No, lady SCREW YOU.

And your husband, who is already probably screwing something other than you.

Report: Netanyahu says 9/11 terror attacks good for Israel

By Haaretz Service and Reuters

The Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv on Wednesday reported that Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu told an audience at Bar Ilan university that the September 11, 2001 terror attacks had been beneficial for Israel.

"We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq," Ma'ariv quoted the former prime minister as saying. He reportedly added that these events "swung American public opinion in our favor."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/975574.html

Not all of us were so damn convinced Mr. Israel.

BTW, who did forge the Niger Documents used to justify a war and take out your number one threat in the region?

HMMMMMMMM?

Hear that AMERICANS...it is good for Isreal that OUR PEOPLE DIE.

Christy

I am beyond outrage now.

No need for me to repeat my anger at America's so-called allies and puppet states that are more like puppet masters.

Christy

Just make sure NOT to take it out on our Jewish friends... Despite Israel, the Jews are still friends of our cause - including many here at DCP.

S Korea is another story altogether - if we ever get our senses back and start a war against them, I will enlist and personally deliver that nuke to their heads.

Man In Clinton's 'Bitter' Ad Isn't Registered To Vote
The Morning Call notes:

Barack Obama can take some solace out of Hillary Clinton's new television ad in Pennsylvania. At least one of her supporters featured in the spot hammering Obama for his small town comments isn't registered to vote in Pennsylvania.

Clyde Thomas, who sports a goatee in the ad and says, "the good people of Pennsylvania deserve a lot better than what Barack Obama said," is actually registered in New Jersey. He
voted there for Clinton Feb. 5....
Pennsylvania

Condi Must Go!
Thanks to a new report from ABC News, we now know that Condoleezza Rice led White House meetings authorizing torture that were so detailed, "the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed."

How can we express the terrible shock we have felt from the fact that our government is using torture? How can we express what so many of us are thinking -- that it is absolutely appalling to know that our representatives are implementing barbaric instruments of torture as policy? How do we express our moral outrage?

Perhaps more importantly, how do we begin to take steps towards ending this heinous crime? Sign the petition and demand Secretary of State Rice to resign.

Our allies at True Majority, USAction, and Democracy for America have launched a campaign to start calling out our leaders by focusing on Condoleezza Rice. No, she is not the president. But we want to call attention to the fact that the Secretary of State called for torture when she was National Security Adviser.

This is our campaign to get all three presidential nominees to call for Rice's resignation. Accountability must start with her, especially now that she's being mentioned as a potential vice presidential candidate. We want to push all the presidential candidates on this issue. They need to make a public stance: Condi Must Go!

Join us in taking action. Join us in creating a firestorm while the traditional media is missing in action. Join us in spreading the word to mobilize our country. We cannot tolerate officials with a blatant disregard for human rights!
Condi Must Go!

"Just make sure NOT to take it out on our Jewish friends... "

This has NOTHING to do with being a 'Jew' and we all know it.

Who Wants to be VP to McBush

Lieberman Willing To Star At Republican Convention
By Manu Raju
Posted: 04/15/08 08:06 PM [ET]
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), the Democratic Party’s 2000 vice presidential nominee, is leaving open the possibility of giving a keynote address on behalf of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) at the Republican National Convention in September.
Republicans close to the McCain campaign say Lieberman’s appearance at the convention, possibly before a national primetime audience, could help make the case that the presumptive GOP nominee has a record of crossing the aisle. That could appeal to much-needed independent voters.
McCain has yet to ask Lieberman to speak, either in primetime or elsewhere, at the convention. But if McCain thinks it will help make his case for the White House, as some of his allies suspect, Lieberman would be willing to speak on his behalf.
“If Sen. McCain, who I support so strongly, asked me to do it, if he thinks it will help him, I will,” Lieberman said in a brief interview.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/lieberman-willing-to-star-at-republican-convention-2008-04-15.html

Honorably discharged vet ordered back to Iraq despite disability

James Raymond lost the hearing in his left ear while fighting in Afghanistan. The former U.S. Army specialist later suffered a knee injury that required him to be flown back home for surgery.

In September 2004, he was given an honorable discharge and the Department of Veterans Affairs determined that he was 10 percent disabled, enabling him to receive $120 a month for the rest of his life.

So it was much to his surprise Thursday when Raymond — now a University at Buffalo student — got a call from his stepfather that he was being deployed again — to Iraq.

“I thought it was a joke, and then I was shocked,” said Raymond, 26, who is from Irondequoit, a suburb of Rochester.

...

That was not the case. Raymond is expected to report for training May 18 at Fort Benning, Ga., where he would undergo a medical and mental evaluation. Five weeks later, if he is determined to be fit to return to duty, he will be deployed to Fort Dix, N.J., where he would join up with a Reserve unit there. In September, the unit is expected to be sent to Iraq.

Read more: http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/324426.html

kangaroo

With so many Democrats willing to do the Republican bidding, who needs political parties anymore?

There is only one party left - the Republicans.

I'm surprised LIEberman is willing to be the new Zell. Not a badge of honor in my opinion. It's not like the Republican Party currently represents anything that is honorable or honest and good.

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/no-whining-about-the-media/index.html?hp

Brooks is once again living in an alternative reality. Tonight's debate was disgusting. I turned it off to watch Isiah Thomas’s swan song as the basketball version of George W. Bush. Stephanopoulos' objectivity was definitely called into question - especially when Hillary was once again allowed to use that absurd line - you can't choose your relatives, but you can choose your pastor – and not be challenged.

If Obama's choice to remain in that Church is suspect, then what should we say about Hillary’s choice to remain married to a man who cheated on her, what dozens, if not hundreds, of times? If we're going to get personal here, then when will the media have the stones to honestly and openly grill her on what her choice to remain married to a serial adulterer says about her character? Care to speculate on her authentic reasons – since no one with a brain takes anything the first family of fabrication says on face value. Is she an emotional doormat who, at the end of the day, routinely submits to powerful men? Is she the type that would sacrifice her emotional life to get / keep her fingers of the reins of power? Or do she and Bill have an agreement, and are, in fact, living a lie – and are not married in any sense that any blue collar, church-going, Pennsylvania couple would understand?

Hillary goes personal on Obama and the media supports her – and tables are never turned. And Obama is too nice. Somebody has to sit him down, and make him watch Brian DaPalma’s version of “The Untouchables” – because the Clinton’s are close to gangsters as the Democratic Party gets nowadays.

As for Brooks’ comments about Iraq, how’s this for a response? You save an additional $100 billon a year by pulling the plug on Bush’s Iraq adventure. If the Iraqis want to fight a civil war, five full years after Saddam’s statue was pulled down, no amount of additional baby-sitting is going to persuade them to give up that urge. I find it astonishing that conservatives who are constantly railing about high taxes, and use every tool at their disposal to avoid paying them, see no problem in squandering at least $100 billion a year of the taxpayer’s money in the ultimate black hole. Better that $100 billion should fund healthcare for Americans. David, if you want to support this boondoggle one day further, then have the integrity to suggest that supporters of this war pay for it by the purchase of war bonds. Put your money where your mouth is. We’ve had enough.

Let ABC News know what you thought about their moderations in this debate.

http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3271346&cat=ABC%20News%20Specials

"Is she the type that would sacrifice her emotional life to get / keep her fingers of the reins of power?"

Yes, she is.

After all, she is a scorpio.

Crooks and liars says

But the result was as dull as it was pointless, with a discussion that tells us nothing about the candidates, their visions, or their ability to govern. E&P’s Greg Mitchell called it “perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years.” The Washington Post’s Tom Shales called it “step downward for network news,” and noted that the moderators delivered “shoddy, despicable performances.” Will Bunch noted, “Quickly, a word to any and all of my fellow journalists who happen to read this open letter. This. Must . Stop.” Salon’s Walter Shapiro added:

'This is the way it ends, not with a bang but a whimper. If Wednesday night’s fizzle in Philly was indeed the last debate of the Democratic primary season between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, it will be remembered for, well, not much of anything.

Broadcast to a prime-time network audience on ABC and devoid of a single policy question during its opening 50 minutes, the debate easily could have convinced the uninitiated that American politics has all the substance of a Beavis and Butt-Head marathon.'

'Broadcast to a prime-time network audience on ABC and devoid of a single policy question during its opening 50 minutes, the debate easily could have convinced the uninitiated that American politics has all the substance of a Beavis and Butt-Head marathon.'

Ain't that America?

Dumb, da-dumb dumb, DUMMMMMMB!

An open letter to Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapoulos

Dear Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos,

It's hard to know where to begin with this, less than an hour after you signed off from your Democratic presidential debate here in my hometown of Philadelphia, a televised train wreck that my friend and colleague Greg Mitchell has already called, quite accurately, "a shameful night for the U.S. media." It's hard because -- like many other Americans -- I am still angry at what I just witnesses, so angry that it's hard to even type accurately because my hands are shaking. Look, I know that "media criticism" -- especially when it's one journalist speaking to another -- tends to be a genteel, colleagial thing, but there's no genteel way to say this.

With your performance tonight -- your focus on issues that were at best trivial wastes of valuable airtime and at worst restatements of right-wing falsehoods, punctuated by inane "issue" questions that in no way resembled the real world concerns of American voters -- you disgraced my profession of journalism, and, by association, me and a lot of hard-working colleagues who do still try to ferret out the truth, rather than worry about who can give us the best deal on our capital gains taxes. But it's even worse than that. By so badly botching arguably the most critical debate of such an important election, in a time of both war and economic misery, you disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself. Indeed, if I were a citizen of one of those nations where America is seeking to "export democracy," and I had watched the debate, I probably would have said, "no thank you." Because that was no way to promote democracy.

You implied throughout the broadcast that you wanted to reflect the concerns of voters in Pennsylvania. Well, I'm a Pennsylvanian voter, and so are my neighbors and most of my friends and co-workers. You asked virtually nothing that reflected our everyday issues -- trying to fill our gas tanks and save for college at the same time, our crumbling bridges and inadequate mass transit, or the root causes of crime here in Philadelphia. In fact, there almost isn't enough space -- and this is cyberspace, where room is unlimited -- to list all the things you could have asked about but did not, from health care to climate change to alternative energy to our policy toward China to the deterioration of Afghanistan to veterans' benefits to improving education. You ignored virtually everything that just happened in what most historians agree is one of the worst presidencies in American history, including the condoning of torture and the trashing of the Constitution, although to be fair you also ignored the policy concerns of people on the right, like immigration issues.

You asked about gun control -- phrased to try for a "gotcha" in a state where that's such a divisive issue -- but not about what we really care about, which is how to reduce crime. You pressed and pressed on those capital gains taxes, but Senators Clinton and Obama were forced to bring up the housing crisis on their own initiative.

Instead, you wasted more than half of the debate -- a full hour -- on tabloid trivia that for the most part wasn't even that interesting, because most of it was infertile ground that has already been covered again and again and again. I'm not saying that Rev. Wright and Bosnia sniper fire and "bitter" were never newsworthy -- I myself wrote about all of these for the Philadelphia Daily News or my Attytood blog, back when they were more relevant -- but the questions were stale yet clearly intended to gin up controversy (they didn't, by the way, other than the controversy over you.) The final questions of that section, asking Obama whether he thought Rev. Wright "loved America" and then suggesting that Obama himself is somehow a hater of the American flag, or worse, were flat-out repulsive.

Are you even thinking when simply echo some of the vilest talking points from far-right talk radio? What are actually getting at -- do you honestly believe that someone with a solid track record as a lawmaker in a Heartland state which elected him to the U.S. Senate, who is now seeking to make some positive American history as our first black president, is somehow un-American, or unpatriotic? Does that even make any sense? Question his policies, or question his leadership. because that is your job as a journalist. But don't insult our intelligence by questioning his patriotism.

Here's a question for you, George. Is it true that yesterday you appeared on the radio with conservative talk radio host Sean Hannity, and that you said you were "taking notes" when he urged you to ask a question about Obama's supposed ties to a former member of the Weather Underground -- which in fact you did. With all the fabulous resources of ABC News at your disposal, is that an appropriate way for a supposed journalist to come up with debate questions, by pandering to divisive radio shows?

And Charlie...could you be any more out of touch with your viewers? Most people aren't millionaires like you, and if Pennsylvanians are losing sleep over economic matters, it is not over whether the capital gains tax will go back up again. I was a little shocked when you pressed and pressed on that back-burner issue and left almost no time for high gas prices, but then I learned tonight that you did the same thing in the last debate, that you fretted over that middle-class family that made $200,000 a year. Charlie, the nicest way that I can put this is that you need to get out more.

But I'm not ready to make nice. What I just watched was an outrage. As a journalist, you appeared to confirm all of the worst qualities that cause people to hold our profession in such low esteem, especially your obsession with cornering the candidates with lame "trick" questions and your complete lack of interest or concern about substance -- or about the American people, or the state of our nation. You embarassed some good people who work at ABC News -- for example, the journalists who worked hard to break this story just last week -- and you embarassed yourselves. The millions of people who watched the debate were embarassed, too -- at the state of our political discourse, and what it has finally become, at long last.

Quickly, a word to any and all of my fellow journalists who happen to read this open letter. This. Must . Stop. Tonight, if possible. I thought that we had hit rock bottom in March 2003, when we failed to ask the tough questions in the run-up to the Iraq war. But this feels even lower. We need to pick ourselves up, right now, and start doing our job -- to take a deep breath and remind ourselves of what voters really need to know, and how we get there, that's it's not all horserace and "gotcha." Although, to be blunt, I would also urge the major candidates in 2012 to agree only to debates that are organized by the League of Women Voters, with citizen moderators and questioners. Because we have proven without a doubt in 2008 that working journalists don't deserve to be the debate "deciders."

Charlie, I'm going to sign off this letter the way that you always sign off the news, that "I hope you had a great day."

Because America just had a horrible night.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/An_open_letter_to_Charlie_Gibson_and_George_Stephanapoulos.html

So far everywhere I go online today, people are furious about what happened last night.

Seems to be a watershed moment.

ABC Switchboard: 212-456-7777

That open letter to Charlie & George is one serious Philly smackdown. I literally turned off the 'debate' after less than 60 seconds.

It's been beyond depressing these last 8 years to watch the so-called most advanced nation on the face of the earth completely implode and learn absolutely nothing in the process.

Fool on the Hill

Main ABC switchboard: 212-456-7777 Update: Use this number: (818) 460-7477

http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3271346&cat=ABC%20News%20Specials

Note that Stephanopoulos was a Bill Clinton advisor himself - he sold out to the devil too.

The DLC - making Democrats irrelevant

That open letter to Charlie & George is one serious Philly smackdown. I literally turned off the 'debate' after less than 60 seconds.

It's been beyond depressing these last 8 years to watch the so-called most advanced nation on the face of the earth completely implode and learn absolutely nothing in the process.

Fool on the Hill

While the world watch on, Absolutely

Barack Obama in Raleigh, NC

Hillary Exposed
The Case of Paul Verses Clinton

The Shocking Video Hillary Does NOT Want You To See! (1of2)

The Shocking Video Hillary Does NOT Want You To See! (2of2)

Ratings, criticism big for ABC debate
Gibson, Stephanopoulos draw fire for 'shoddy' work

NEW YORK (AP) - ABC News drew both record ratings and a heap of complaints about how Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos moderated the Democratic presidential debate, criticism that Stephanopoulos on Thursday called a sign of how much people care.

By midafternoon Thursday, more than 15,600 comments were posted on ABC News' Web site, the tone overwhelmingly negative. A prominent TV critic, Tom Shales of The Washington Post, said Gibson and Stephanopoulos "turned in shoddy, despicable performances."

There was some positive feedback, with columnist David Brooks of The New York Times giving ABC News' performance an "A."

-snip-

"The questions were tough and fair and appropriate and relevant," Stephanopoulos told The Associated Press. "We wanted to focus at first on the issues that were not focused on during the last debates."

The criticism comes with the territory, he said. "It's one more sign of how engaged people are over this election," he said.

-snip-

Stephanopoulos acknowledged that it was legitimate to wonder about the order of the questions, and whether some of the more issue-oriented subjects brought up during the debate's second half should have been sprinkled in earlier.

But he said it was appropriate to address questions like Wright, Bosnia and Obama's comments about rural Americans because they were issues in the campaign and hadn't been talked about in debates before. His question about a former Weather Underground official had received barely little notice in the campaign.

The Times' Brooks, posting comments less than an hour after the debate ended, predicted Democrats and particularly Obama supporters would jump all over ABC.

"I understand the complaints, but I thought the questions were excellent," he wrote. "The journalist's job is to make politicians uncomfortable, to explore evasions, contradictions and vulnerabilities. Almost every question tonight did that. The candidates each looked foolish at times, but that's their own fault."

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24189180/

1 Man, 1 Year: $3.7 Billion Payout (Hedge Fund Manager Won Big by Betting Mortgages Would Fail)

By David Cho

The subprime mortgage mess that caused massive losses for homeowners and banks was a little kinder to hedge fund manager John Paulson. Betting subprime mortgage securities would sour, Paulson personally earned $3.7 billion last year.

Yes, you read that correctly. That's billion with a "b."

He wasn't the only one with Titanic-size profits. Two other fund managers, George Soros and James Simons, who are notoriously secretive about their investments, earned $2.9 billion and $2.8 billion, respectively, according to Alpha Magazine's annual list of top hedge fund earners.

The numbers left jaws agape across Wall Street and Washington. With his windfall from last year alone, Paulson could have bought troubled Wall Street giant Bear Stearns three times over. Or he could have matched the price Delta agreed this week to pay to merge with Northwest Airlines and still have $600 million left over.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

Too Much of Nothing: Crime Without Punishment, War Without End
The President of the United States has openly, proudly admitted that he approved the use of interrogation methods that are by every measure -- including the measure of United States law -- criminal acts of torture. It is one of the most brazen and scandalous confessions of wrongdoing ever uttered by an American leader -- and it has had no impact whatsoever. No scandal, no outcry, no protest, no prosecution.
This pattern has recurred over and over throughout the Bush Administration. Bush and his minions commit crimes and atrocities in secret; they move heaven and earth to conceal their filthy deeds; they squirm and squeal like panicked rats when their some small portion of their evil comes to light; they belch forth a relentless series of self-contradictory lies to cover up, obfuscate or explain away the crimes; and when at last their malefactions can no longer be denied, they trot out the president himself to say: "Yeah, we did it; so what?" And then....nothing happens.
And now nothing is happening again. It is an astounding phenomenon. Bush is the most widely despised president in modern times. The war he launched on false pretenses against Iraq is deeply unpopular, and is plainly bankrupting the country. His economic policies have plunged millions into ruin, want and insecurity. The opposition political party controls the Congress -- a bastion they could have used as a bully pulpit to rally the public and as a battering ram to bring down an openly criminal, shamelessly unconstitutional, dangerous, illegitimate regime. And yet....nothing happens.
There has never been a condition of such deep, virtually catatonic civic paralysis in American history -- and few such instances in world history. There will be no good issue from all of this. No saving grace in the last act, no life-enhancing "lessons learned," no character growth in the story arc, no deus ex machina, no redemption. There will only be -- at best, in the very best-case scenario imaginable -- a long, slow agonizing slog through the ruins, a hard, interminable labor of waste disposal and reclamation, in a much-diminished world.
And yet the sleepwalking goes on. For not only is Bush never chastened or hobbled by revelations that ordinarily would topple even the strongest government in any nation with even a tincture of democracy -- he and his cronies simply move on from each exposed outrage to even greater crimes. And that is what is happening today. Even as Bush was telling ABC News about his approval of the White House torture meetings -- where the nation's most august figures of state watched CIA men act out torture techniques for them -- he and his minions were also bolting the last rivets onto their latest war machine: the engine of murder and destruction they have prepared for Iran.
The same process of deception and fearmongering that led to the Iraq invasion is being played out again. And once again, the Establishment press is playing an indispensible role in formenting a new act of mass murder. Once again, the media mandarins are shoveling horseshit directly from the White House down the gullets of the American people.
Last week, the Bush Regime used the Establishment house organs, the Washington Post and the New York Times, to announce that Iran is now the main U.S. enemy in Iraq. Both reports were laden with the usual unchallenged, unfiltered, unquestioned spin from the usual unnamed "senior U.S. officials" about Iran's "malign influence" in arming, training and directing deadly Shiite militia attacks against U.S. forces.
http://www.chris-floyd.com/

Reprising the Genocidal Fury of Thomas Friedman
How many more people will have to die to keep the warmongers from colliding with the enormity of their crimes? What child will be ripped to shreds tonight -- and tomorrow night -- and every night afterward, for "ten months or ten years," to keep Thomas Friedman snug and cozy in the gilded palace of his endless self-regard?
http://www.chris-floyd.com/

Family's sole surviving son denied benefits post-Iraq; plight inspires legislation proposal

GARANCE BURKE
AP News

Apr 16, 2008 11:57 EST

Forced to leave the combat zone after his two brothers died in the Iraq war, Army Spc. Jason Hubbard faced another battle once he returned home: The military cut off his

It wasn't until Hubbard petitioned his local congressman that he was able to restore some of his benefits.

Now that congressman, Rep. Devin Nunes, plans to join three other lawmakers in introducing a bill that would ensure basic benefits to all soldiers who are discharged under an Army policy governing sole surviving siblings and children of soldiers killed in combat. The rule is a holdover from World War II meant to protect the rights of service people who have lost a family member to war.

"I felt as if in some ways I was being punished for leaving even though it was under these difficult circumstances," Hubbard told The Associated Press. "The situation that happened to me is not a one-time thing. It's going to happen to other people, and to have a law in place is going to ease their tragedy in some way."

Hubbard, 33, and his youngest brother, Nathan, enlisted while they were still grieving for their brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, who was 22 when he was killed in a 2004 bomb explosion in Ramadi.

At their request, the pair were assigned to the same unit, the 3rd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, and deployed to Iraq the next year.

In August, 21-year-old Cpl. Nathan died when his Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Kirkuk. Jason was part of the team assigned to remove his comrades' bodies from the wreckage.

Hubbard accompanied his little brother's body on a military aircraft to Kuwait, then on to California. He kept steady during Nathan's burial at Clovis Cemetery, standing in dress uniform between his younger brothers' graves as hundreds sobbed in the heat.

But Hubbard broke his silence when he found his wife, pregnant with their second child, had been cut off from the transitional health care the family needed to ease back to civilian life after he was discharged in October.

"This is a man who asked for nothing and gave a lot," said Nunes, R-Calif., who represents Hubbard's hometown of Clovis, a city of 90,000 next to Fresno. "Jason is one person who obviously has suffered tremendously and has given the ultimate sacrifice. One person is too many to have this happen to."

Hubbard went to Nunes, who began advocating for the former soldier in December, after hearing the Army was demanding that he repay $6,000 from his enlistment bonus and was denying him up to $40,000 in educational benefits under the GI bill.

After speaking with Army Secretary Pete Geren, Nunes got the repayment waived, and a military health policy restored for Hubbard's wife.

But the policy mandated that she be treated at a nearby base, and doctors at the Lemoore Naval Air Station warned that the 45-mile trip could put her and the fetus in danger. Hubbard said doctors offered alternative treatment at a hospital five hours away.
Continued http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=130610

Let me get this straight, Hillary. Your husband was a coward in every possible sense during the Vietnam War, but now you want extend an umbrella to defend all America's "alleged" (and let me emphasize the word "alleged") allies in the Middle East?

Why is that liberals become hawkish once they've passed the point when they or their loved one have any chance of being thrust into harm's way?

World War I began because all the major powers had exactly the kind of committments that Hillary proposed last night. If this is the best you she do, may God prevent you from ever becoming President. She's learning nothing, absolutely nothing, from history.

Nearly 1 in 5 troops has mental problems after war service

By PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press Writer

AP Photo/MAYA ALLERUZZO




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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Roughly one in every five U.S. troops who have survived the bombs and other dangers of Iraq and Afghanistan now suffers from major depression or post-traumatic stress, an independent study said Thursday. It estimated the toll at 300,000 or more.

As many or more report possible brain injuries from explosions or other head wounds, said the study, the first major survey from outside the government.

Only about half of those with mental health problems have sought treatment. Even fewer of those with head injuries have seen doctors.

Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker said the report, from the Rand Corp., was welcome.

"They're helping us to raise the visibility and the attention that's needed by the American public at large," said Schoomaker, a lieutenant general. "They are making this a national debate."

- more -

http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/T/TROOPS_MENTAL_HEALTH?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=HOME

*****

Is this really a surprise?

Have you ever seen such a Liberation?...

Mass Graves in Iraq. Whose mass graves are these?
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat's Dream

Finally the notorious Iraqi mass graves are being unearthed. There is only one problem: they are the product of Liberated Iraq. Az-Zaman (London; Iraq): Largest mass grave found in Mahmoudiya – Iraqis were shocked yesterday by the discovery of the largest mass grave in their modern history, with 4,020 bodies of mostly women, youth and men from Mahmoudiya and its surroundings. Local residents said the bodies belonged to victims of kidnappings and executions carried out by (Shiite) al-Mahdi Army, Badr, and al-Dawa militias in 2005 and 2006. It seems this is just the beginning; not only Oil in New Iraq's underground. Have you ever seen such a Liberation?...

http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m43160&hd=&size=1&l=e

The discovery and unearthing of the biggest mass grave committed by the militias in Mahmoudiya
Kareem Abd Zaid, Azzaman
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m43156&hd=&size=1&l=e

Roo, I suppose you realise the Hillary videos can't be seen from your posts. Do you have any other URL for them?

Solidarity with Iraq’s orphans
Hussein Al-alak, the Iraq Solidarity Campaign
Only silence has echoed through the corridors of power in Great Britain, in relation to the news that 4.5 million child orphans now exist in Iraq, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The ministry also announced in January, that there are an estimated 500,000 orphans now living in Iraq’s streets, without accommodation or an appropriate care provider, as the Iraqi news agency Voices of Iraq reported, that there are only around 459 orphans who are currently residing in Iraqi government funded orphanages. There is uncertainty as to how many children are actually being held in "detention" inside of prisons in Iraq, or even information relating to the welfare of children who are now resident in refugee camps as a result of the crisis. There also exists no record of those children who have been kidnapped by criminal gangs and whose lives are being held hostage for use in the now booming sex trade...
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m43146&hd=&size=1&l=e

Documents Obtained By ACLU Describe Charges Of Murder And Torture Of Prisoners In U.S. Custody
ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union obtained documents today from the Department of Defense confirming the military’s use of unlawful interrogation methods on detainees held in U.S. custody in Afghanistan. The documents from the military’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID), obtained as a result of the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, include the first on-the-ground reports of torture in Gardez, Afghanistan to be publicly released. "These documents make it clear that the military was using unlawful interrogation techniques in Afghanistan," said Amrit Singh, an attorney with the ACLU. "Rather than putting a stop to these systemic abuses, senior officials appear to have turned a blind eye to them."... Today’s documents reveal charges that Special Forces beat, burned, and doused eight prisoners with cold water before sending them into freezing weather conditions. One of the eight prisoners, Jamal Naseer, died in U.S. custody in March 2003...
www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/34923prs20080416.html

The Democrats’ Wimp Factor
As Obama's patriotism is questioned, he's starting to look more and more like John Kerry in '04.

Apr 17, 2008
by Michael Hirsh/Newsweek

The specter of John Kerry in 2004 is beginning to haunt the Democrats in 2008. It is the specter of wimpy campaigns past. It showed up, like Banquo's ghost, at the debate Wednesday night in Philadelphia, particularly when Hillary Clinton joined with ABC's George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson to nip away at the edges of Barack Obama's patriotism. Between the questions about Obama's meager association with William Ayers, a former Weatherman, and the suspicions raised by his lack of a flag lapel pin, the likely nominee is slowly being turned into John Kerry. He is becoming, in other words, a candidate who may be mostly right about national security but who will lack the Red State street cred to carry his point—and the election.

Once again timorous Democratic advisers behind the scenes are hoping they can run mainly on the ailing economy. While their candidates are urging an end to George W. Bush's war in Iraq, they are terrified of questioning the larger premises of his "war on terror" or John McCain's redefinition of it as the "transcendent challenge of the 21st century." Today's Dems are, in other words, proving unequal to the task of reclaiming the party's mostly honorable heritage on national security. This view is sadly out of touch, today more than ever. To little notice, Obama's tough, clearly stated position on Bush's war—that it was disastrously misdirected toward Iraq when Afghanistan was always the real front—is becoming conventional wisdom, even among the Bush administration's top security officials, like Defense Secretary Bob Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. During two days of nearly impenetrable testimony on Iraq by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker last week, one answer rang out as clearly as an alarm bell. Under questioning from Joe Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Crocker admitted that Al Qaeda poses a greater threat in Afghanistan and Pakistan than it does in Iraq. No one knows more about this than the ambassador, an Arabic-speaking diplomat who previously served as envoy to Pakistan and whose career practically tells the story of America and the age of terror going back to the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut.

Yet the region that poses America's number one threat is getting little in attention and resources compared to Iraq. What Obama is arguing on the stump is pretty close to what Gates and the Joint Chiefs have been quietly hearing from their military advisers: that the best the United States can do with its scant NATO force of 37,000 in Afghanistan is to hold off the resurgent Taliban and their Al Qaeda guests in a stalemate. Under current conditions Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the chief culprits of 9/11, will continue to have plenty of room to roam, unharried by any large-scale U.S. or Pakistani effort to go after them. This is even truer today; next door to Afghanistan, Pakistan is transitioning into a post-Musharraf era and seeking to negotiate more with the extremists. Obama called last year for two additional brigades to be sent to Afghanistan, and last week he was joined by Biden, who told an audience at Georgetown University that "the longer we stay in Iraq, the more we put off the day when we fully join the fight against the real Al Qaeda threat and finally defeat those who attacked America seven years ago." Biden added that Gen. Dan McNeil, commander of the international force in Afghanistan, told him during a visit in February "that with two extra combat brigades—about 10,000 soldiers—he could turn around the security situation in the south, where the Taliban is on move. But he can't get them because of Iraq." Even Hillary Clinton has been tacking, very quietly, in Obama's direction.

No one, in other words, has a better case to make on national security right now than Barack Obama. John McCain is still out there contending that Iraq is the central battlefront and quoting Osama bin Laden favorably to justify his argument (not to mention mixing up Shiites and Sunnis). Under normal conditions this position might saddle McCain with a real "vulnerability"—to use a term the Dems like to employ about themselves—but it doesn't seem to hurt him much now. The Democrats are too afraid of his all-American "story," as Hillary put it. John Kerry, a winner of the Silver Star in Vietnam, spent most of his 2004 campaign defending himself against vague suggestions of treason based on his antiwar testimony in 1971, when as a young officer returning from Vietnam he asked, penetratingly and relevantly for today, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

Obama is being placed on the defensive on flimsy grounds as well, and there he's likely to stay, rendered permanently suspicious by association thanks to questions about Ayers and the "anti-American" statements of his pastor, Jeremiah Wright. As Clinton said helpfully during the debate, "It goes to this larger set of concerns about how we are going to run against John McCain." She's right, but her fears are self-fulfilling. The more damage she does to Obama, the harder it will be for him to take the offensive against a bona fide patriot and war hero like McCain. Safer just to talk about the economy and health care.

Insecurity over national security has been eating at the Democrats ever since Vietnam destroyed the party's proud self-image, which was forged by FDR, Truman and JFK in World War II and the early years of cold war containment (both Democratic success stories). Obama, by most accounts, is confident of his ability to reclaim this grand tradition. "Of all people I've dealt with on foreign policy issues, this guy takes to it like a duck to water," one of his top advisers, Greg Craig, a former State Department policy planning chief, told me recently. But the party's peculiar pathology could yet drag Obama down. He's getting Kerryized. At a time when he should be taking on John McCain, he's being forced to talk about lapel pins.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/132566

Hey, thanks again Hillary.

Don't you just love it when people who have never put themselves in harm's way are seen as patriots, and authentic patriots like John Kerry are seen as somehow weak and ineffectual?

Meanwhile, McCain is still exorcizing his demons from the Vietnam War.

For those of you in the NYC area, John and Teresa will be doing a book signing at the Union Square Barnes & Noble on April 21st.

Ongoing nomination fight hurting Clinton more than Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a dramatic reversal, an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll found that a clear majority of Democratic voters now say Sen. Barack Obama has a better chance of defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in November than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-obama-gains;_ylt=AvtKKwPp2fhZeTHc.wr3S7Cs0NUE