Kucinich - Gravel 2008 . . .

The landslide winners of the white house after dubya's incredibly ill-considered libby leniency.

Why not? The same kind of deal let jimma carter into the white house.

bush has totally diddled the gop for 2008, which leads me to revisit my suspicion that the racketeers currently in the wh plan on holding it by coup. Occam's Razor: The simplest answer that fits all the facts is most likely to be true.

Note: dubya couldn't even do this on the up-and-up. libby still has a quarter-million dollar fine and a criminal record.

Political Asylum

Why are we holding Kurdistan?

Nation building anyone? More to come.

"Not all of Iraq is like Baghdad" -- Zalmay Khalilzad

Sanandaj

I am, as an Irishman and as a logician, not in favor of partitioning countries to cover up bad nation building or failed imperialism, but I have to wonder why the US is allowing Kurdistan to be held in to the current abortive version of iraq-oidia. Are we doing favors for our lukewarm ally, Turkey? Are we using kurds for bait in the "democratization" of iraq? Are we using kurds as a human shield until we can set up permanent bases in their confines? Have we promised their oil to some other faction? Have we promised their oil to some cronies of bushco?

Here's a link to Kurdistani news. Here's a link to blogs on Kurdistan.

Which way to the front?

Cunning Realist nails it again. When will our-war-prez and our-war-prez-wannabee be able to answer this simple question?

Coincidentally, I am reading The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq by George Packer. Dubya and straight-talk are excused somewhat since apparently no one has known the answer during the period from March 2003 to the present. Dick cheney has known an answer at various times, but there seems to be no correlation to the facts on the ground.

April Fools and a Full Moon

A perfect time to consider the achievements of the bush administration:

American conservatism at stake?

Andrew Sullivan's Sunday London Times piece, There’s a new nasty party out there talks about some of the uphill fights facing both the republicans and the conservatives.

Think of it as a perfect storm of many, many scandals, meeting over the increasingly warm political water of the Iraq war and becoming something potentially more lethal. In many ways the entire future of American conservatism is at stake.

This is nuts!

New Freedom Commission on Mental Health

Commander in Chief

forelle:
I began to wonder yesterday about the genesis of the head of state becoming commander in chief -- see Wikipedia article

And I have learned a few things:

• george washington and james madison actually appeared in a theatre of combat as president (without a plastic turkey)
• rumsfeld did away with actual military CINCs in 1992
• the powers of THE CINC are moot
• and the war on terror (while not a real war) has been used by bushco to declare invented powers of the oval orifice

See the subhead of the above Wikipedia article on The United States

Will Embarassing the President Make Us Safer?

Will Embarassing the President Make Us Safer? by Ed Koch

kilgore forelle:
Oh yeah! I think we should have two non-binding resolutions:

• from now on bush is fully-in-charge of embarrassing himself, and
• ed koch can run for congress anytime he can find someone who wants him.

One of the reasons rudy looked so good as mayor is because he followed koch and dinkins.

pangloss:
Is leaving Iraq now a good thing?

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"Goodness has got nothing to do with it." -- Mae West.

forelle:
Is removing your teat from a wringer a good thing? Not relevent. Is removing your teat from a wringer next on your agenda? Very relevent.

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Democrats and some Republicans in Congress are seeking to humble, embarrass and, if they can, destroy the President and the prestige of his position as the Commander-in-Chief who is responsible for the safety of our military forces and the nation's defenses. -- Ed "who asked you?" Koch

forelle:
And that is exactly what had to be done to lbj and rmn, to make them stop writing their memoirs long enough to find out that they had only punchy palookas left on their side.

hirohito had to be destoyed to get him to stop, hitler, saddam, the roman empire, the ottoman empire, the hapsburgs, napolean, clinton, . . .

It's omelette making time.

And those of you who are OK with the war but not OK with domestic spying, the whole domestic spying thing is growing right out of the nose of the iraq war. Where else, do you think?

Molly Ivins -- RIP

"If left to my own devices, I'd spend all my time pointing out that [Bill Clinton]'s weaker than bus-station chili."

"The next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please, pay attention."

"We are the deciders."

WikiQuote