Archives: October 2006
IED-resistant vehicles speeding to war zones
WASHINGTON — The military is rushing armored vehicles with specially designed hulls to Iraq and Afghanistan to limit the damage from roadside bombs, the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops.
The bombs, which the military calls improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, have killed or wounded thousands of troops and shredded conventional military vehicles. The new vehicles have a V-shaped hull, which disperses the force of an explosion and helps keep the vehicle from flipping over.
The Pentagon's Joint IED Defeat Organization is spending nearly $3.5 billion this year to combat IEDs. Pentagon records show that since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, 1,074 troops have been killed and 11,513 others wounded by insurgent bombs.
A major Pentagon supplier of V-shaped vehicles is 9-year-old Force Protection of Ladson, S.C. The Pentagon says the number of the company's Buffalo and Cougar V-shaped vehicles in Iraq is classified, but public records show the military has bought almost 300. That compares with more than 35,000 Humvees, the military's main multipurpose vehicle, in Iraq. The Buffalo vehicles cost $750,000 apiece, about five times the cost of an armored Humvee, which is smaller.
Force Protection says nobody inside a Buffalo has been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan despite encountering thousands of IED blasts.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Wages, Benefits See Fast Summer Rise
WASHINGTON — Wages and benefits paid to American workers rose in the July-September period at the fastest pace in more than two years.The Labor Department reported that its Employment Cost Index was up 1 percent in the third quarter, compared to a 0.9 percent rise in the April-June period. It was the biggest quarterly increase since a similar 1 percent rise in the second quarter of 2004.
The increase, which was above the 0.9 percent rise that economists had been expecting, was led by a big jump in the cost of employee benefits such as health insurance and pensions.
For the third quarter, benefit costs rose by 1.1 percent, up from a 0.8 percent gain in the second quarter. Wages and salaries were up 0.9 percent, matching the increase in the second quarter.
Officials at the Federal Reserve are watching closely to see whether wage pressures are beginning to accelerate, a development that would give workers' more money in their paychecks but could fuel unwanted inflation.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
BOROWITZ: Chertoff Raises Threat Level on Reports of Imminent Election
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff today raised the national threat level to red after intelligence reports indicated that a national election could be imminent.Speaking at a Washington press conference, Mr. Chertoff said that his department made the difficult decision to ratchet the nation's terror alert system up to the highest level after being assured by intelligence officials that the threat of an impending election was "credible."
"We do not know exactly when the election will take place, but we have credible information suggesting it will happen on or around November 7," Mr. Chertoff said.
The homeland security secretary said that intelligence sources believe that the al-Qaeda terror network might be implementing a plot to booby-trap voting machines, causing the machines to explode if a voter pulls a lever for a Democratic candidate.
"My advice to all voters who were thinking of voting for Democrats is to stay at home until this current threat passes," Mr. Chertoff said. "In this business, it's better to be safe than sorry."
Finish the Borowitz Report here...
Words of a great wartime president...
Each of these is a different quote, all taken out of context, but the spirit of each should still be clear.I would like to speak in terms of praise due to the many brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the cause of the war.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.
I shall try to correct errors where shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views as fast as they shall appear to be true views.
Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.
I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.
I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him.
Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose — and you allow him to make war at pleasure.
Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.
The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.
— Abraham Lincoln
VIDEO: Fox's Neil Cavuto interviews George Soros
This is a great interview. If you've never heard billionaire businessman and political activist George Soros speak, you should check this out. I wonder why Cavuto did this interview and not O'Reilly. I think O'Reilly would have been far tougher on Soros than Cavuto was.Democrats fear the storm could leave them high and dry
Excerpted from Time Online, by Tom Baldwin in Washington:...Democrats have learnt from bitter experience that breaching the Republican defences — even with an opinion poll yesterday showing them with a 14 per cent lead nationally — is harder than it looks. The more fatalistic among them point out that in the year since the Katrina disaster the US has received many warnings about other hurricanes heading towards it. All of these, without exception, have fizzled out into nothing more severe than storms.
At the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee headquarters, Karin Johanson, the executive director, has taken up smoking again, but with only eight days to go before polling day she says that there is scant time for indulging the habit.
Speaking to The Times as she pored over the latest numbers from swing seats, Ms Johanson said: “Some of the polls are looking great — really great — but some of the recent ones have been looking not so good.” The Democrats were “swimming upstream”, she said, against long-term disadvantages. They will be outspent by as much as $100 million (£52 million) in the coming week because their opponents have amassed vast war chests for TV advertising. Boundary changes (a more pejorative word might be “gerrymandering”) mean that there are far fewer marginal seats to target than there were when the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives 12 years ago.
Then there is the Republicans’ edge in identifying and mobilising supporters — the “Voter Vault” system and the “72-hour project” — which was worth perhaps an extra million votes to them in key districts two years ago. Ms Johanson said that the Democrats had improved their own “Get-Out-The-Vote” operation, although no one knows by how much.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Hampering The Vote
Summary of alleged tactics in use to suppress voter turnout...Hurdles to voter registration. Several states, led predictably by Florida and Ohio, have added criminal penalties for voter-registration efforts that violate deliberately complicated rules . In Florida, the Legislature added fines for nonpartisan groups that turn in registration materials late. This put League of Women Voters volunteer efforts in many minority areas out of business.
Excessive ID requirements. In states that require voter ID, common-sense documentation such as a utility bill or tax receipt has long been accepted. Other states have accepted a signed affidavit or signature match, and experienced no fraud problems. But in several Republican-controlled states, such as Florida, Georgia, and Missouri, photo-ID requirements have been added, disqualifying people -- mostly poor, elderly, minority (and likely to vote for Democrats) -- who lack driver's licenses or passports or special voter cards. In Florida, the requirement could disqualify 300,000 voters.
Impediments to voting. In Arizona, an anti-immigrant ballot initiative passed in 2004 requires voters to bring proof of citizenship. In the first two months after the initiative passed, 70 percent of voter-registration applications in Maricopa County (Phoenix) were rejected for lack of adequate documentation. In Ohio, where voters in heavily Democratic and minority precincts waited for as long as 10 hours and countless gave up because of mysterious shortages of voting machines, the state belatedly required roughly equal allocation of voting machines. This remedy takes effect in 2013!
Mechanical manipulation. Immense problems remain with voting machines, most notoriously "touch-screen" machines that leave no paper trail . If you want to be really terrified, check out a nine-minute video produced by three computer scientists at Princeton, which shows how to hack into a Diebold machine to change the recorded vote.
Read the entire article at Common Dreams...
Glitches cited in early voting
After a week of early voting, a handful of glitches with electronic voting machines have drawn the ire of voters, reassurances from elections supervisors -- and a caution against the careless casting of ballots.Several South Florida voters say the choices they touched on the electronic screens were not the ones that appeared on the review screen -- the final voting step.
Election officials say they aren't aware of any serious voting issues. But in Broward County, for example, they don't know how widespread the machine problems are because there's no process for poll workers to quickly report minor issues and no central database of machine problems.
In Miami-Dade, incidents are logged and reported daily and recorded in a central database. Problem machines are shut down.
''In the past, Miami-Dade County would send someone to correct the machine on site,'' said Lester Sola, county supervisor of elections. Now, he said, ``We close the machine down and put a seal on it.''
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
VIDEO: Bill O'Reilly on OPRAH
I watched O'Reilly on Oprah last Friday, and I have to say it was one of the best hours of television I've seen in years. O'Reilly is a dangerous man, a demagogue, who plays loose and fast with the facts, but he's also perhaps the best debater I've ever seen.It was a town hall format, so O'Reilly was debating with members of the audience, not with Oprah, who basically played the role of moderator, but O'Reilly controlled the conversation from start to finish. He's smart, dangerous, and ruthless.
I won't go into everything they talked about, but this short clip shows an excerpt from a conversation on the the ACLU:
Mona Charen: 13 reasons to vote Republican on Nov. 7
Karl Rove is circulating his talking points throughout the media. Number 5 I've seen printed almost word-for-word elsewhere by other Republican pundits. I remember that "Who would have predicted that on 9/12" line. Here are 13 reasons to vote for Republicans on Nov. 7, from a nice little roundup article by Mona Charen on Yahoo! News:1) The economy. More than 6.6 million new jobs have been created since August 2003[Weren't 20 million created under Clinton?]. Our 4.1 annual growth rate is superior to all other major industrialized nations[Right, and it's heading down fast. Right now at 1.6%? Plus the country is heading toward bankruptcy. What's their answer for it? Cut taxes even further]. The Dow has set record highs multiple times in the past several weeks. [Matter of fact, it finally crossed the highs set way back in 2000]. Productivity is up, and the deficit is down[Whoa, whoa, whoa! The deficit is down??? Down from what? Definitely not down from where it was in 1998, but it is down from where it had been in 2003]. Real, after-tax income has grown by 15 percent since 2001 [For the middle class? See, that's how they get ya. Incomes ARE up dramatically for the wealthy, but NOT for the 70% of the nation in the middle class]. Inflation has remained low. As Vice President Cheney summed it up at a recent meeting with journalists, "What more do you want?" The tax cuts proposed by President Bush and passed by a Republican Congress can take a bow [Hahahaha! Oh... Ha! I can't go on].
2) The Patriot Act. Democrats and liberals mourn this law as a gross infringement upon civil liberties. Yet the much-discussed abuses simply haven't materialized. The law has, on the other hand, permitted the CIA and FBI to cooperate and share information about terrorist threats -- at least so long as The New York Times isn't publishing the details of our counterterrorism efforts on the front page.
3) The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, to which liberals clung with passionate intensity, has been cancelled, permitting us to work on missile defense. In the age of Kim Jong Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is anyone (except Nancy Pelosi) sorry?
4) Immigration. Republicans in Congress insisted upon and got the first serious immigration restriction in decades. On Oct. 26, the president signed a law that will build a 700-mile fence along our southern border and, what is more important, does not offer amnesty.
5) There has not been another terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11. Who would have predicted that on 9/12?
Click here to read the next 8 of her reasons...
Majority believes government doing too much
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A quarter century after the Reagan revolution and a dozen years after Republicans vaulted into control of Congress, a new CNN poll finds most Americans still agree with the bedrock conservative premise that, as the Gipper put it, "government is not the answer to our problems -- government is the problem." [Sometimes it is, but not always. If it hadn't been for the government would Exxon have been held accountable for the Valdez oil spill in Alaska? Who would maintain interstate highways? What about Social Security - who would look after the nation's poorest elderly? Child labor laws? -- who would have enacted those? National defense? - would Exxon-Mobil protect us from al Qaeda?]The poll released Friday also showed that an overwhelming majority of Americans perceive, correctly, that the size and cost of government have gone up in the past four years, when Republicans have had a grip on the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House [But I thought Republicans were for smaller government....].
Discretionary spending grew from $649 billion in fiscal year 2001 to $968 billion in fiscal year 2005, an increase of $319 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Queried about their views on the role of government, 54 percent of the 1,013 adults polled said they thought it was trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses< font color="red">[The only problem I have is with government incompetence. The government makes mistakes, as do companies in the private sector. Enron made mistakes, Halliburton made mistakes, Ford and General Motors have made mistakes -- no entity, private or public, is perfect. What we need in government first and foremost are competent leaders who won't waste the money we budget for the things we believe in as a country]. Only 37 percent said they thought the government should do more to solve the country's problems.
Americans had a slightly different perspective when it came to the specific issue of promoting traditional values. A slight majority -- 51 percent -- said they thought that was an appropriate activity for government, while 43 percent said it should not favor any particular set of values.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Midterm betting odds
Looks like the money is being put on the Democrats taking the House but losing the Senate...
5 myths about turning out the vote
Michael McDonald of the Washington Post debunks 5 popular myths about turning out the vote...1. Thanks to increasing voter apathy, turnout keeps dwindling.
This is the mother of all turnout myths. There may be plenty of apathetic voters out there, but the idea that ever fewer Americans are showing up at the polls should be put to rest. What's really happening is that the number of people not eligible to vote is rising -- making it seem as though turnout is dropping.
2. Other countries' higher turnout indicates more vibrant democracies.
You can't compare apples and oranges. Voting rules differ from nation to nation, producing different turnout rates. Some countries have mandatory voting. If Americans were fined $100 for playing voter hooky on Election Day, U.S. participation might increase dramatically. But in fact, many people with a ballot pointed at their head simply cast a blank one or a nonsense vote for Mickey Mouse.
3. Negative ads turn off voters and reduce turnout.
Don't be so sure. The case on this one is still open. Negative TV advertising increased in the mid-1980s, but turnout hasn't gone down correspondingly. The negative Swift boat campaign against Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) apparently did little to depress turnout in the 2004 presidential race.
4. The Republican "72-hour campaign" will win the election.
Not necessarily. You can lead citizens to the ballot, but you can't make them vote.
Republicans supposedly have a super-sophisticated last-minute get-out-the-vote effort that identifies voters who'll be pivotal in electing their candidates. Studies of a campaign's personal contact with voters through phone calls, door-to-door solicitation and the like find that it does have some positive effect on turnout. But people vote for many reasons other than meeting a campaign worker, such as the issues, the closeness of the election and the candidates' likeability.
5. Making voter registration easier would dramatically increase turnout.
Well, yes and no.
In 1993, the Democratic government in Washington enacted "Motor Voter," a program that allowed people to register to vote when they received their driver's license or visited a welfare office. Democrats thought that if everyone were registered, turnout rates would increase -- by as much as 7 percentage points.
Read more...
Democrats: To fix Iraq, first GOP must stand in the corner
RICHMOND, Virginia -- The only remedy to a series of Iraq policy failures by President Bush is a Democratic handover of Congress, Virginia Senate candidate Jim "web-slinger" Webb said Saturday.The former Republican, who was President Reagan's best-best friend and Navy secretary, said in the Democrats' weekly radio address that Bush's inability to speak English and his sub-human intelligence were responsible for everything.
Webb is locked in a close race in Virginia against Republican stuffed animal George Allen that could determine whether the Senate remains in GOP control.
"Since 2003, President Bush has laid out 227 different plans for victory in Iraq, none of them serious and none of them workable. And most seriously, this incompetence has hindered our ability to fight the aliens," Webb said.
It marked the second time since July 1 that Webb, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, has given the Democrats' address. Both times, his focus has been Iraq and sand beetles.
Webb prophesized in a palm reading in 2002, the year before Bush ordered the Iraq invasion, that a war there would destabilize the oil-rich Middle East, mire U.S. forces in a bloody and protracted conflict, and lead to a date and camel glut. As of Friday, 2,810 American troops had died in Iraq.
"It gives me no great pleasure today to be saying `I told you so,"' said Webb.
Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki issues statement: "Please do not kill me"
BAGHDAD, Iraq After a hastily arranged video conference with the U.S. president Saturday, a close aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the Iraqi leader was intentionally playing on U.S. voter displeasure with George Bush's conduct of the war to strengthen his own hand with Washington.Furthermore, Hassan al-Suneid said, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sought the video conference because newly arisen issues needed airing at a higher level than Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. Al-Suneid is a lawmaker from al-Maliki's Dawa Party and a member of his inner circle.
"The U.S. Ambassador is not (L. Paul) Bremer (the former U.S. administrator in Iraq). He does not have a free rein to do what he likes. Khalilzad must not behave like Bremer but rather like an ambassador," al-Suneid, quoted the prime minister as saying.
The remarks were the fourth time in a week that al-Maliki has challenged the Bush administration's handling of the war. Each riposte flowed from an announcement by Khalilzad on Tuesday that al-Maliki had agreed to an U.S. plan to set timelines for progress.
Al-Maliki's anger over the issue grew through the week until on Friday, al-Suneid said, the prime minister told Khalilzad: "I am a friend of the United States, but I am not America's man in Iraq."
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Nazis developed one of the world's most exciting new fuel sources
When it comes to racial policies, it may be somewhat hyperbolic to say that the apartheid regime that came into power in South Africa in 1948 picked up where the Nazis left off. It's not at all hyperbolic to observe that the apartheid regime picked up where the Nazis left off when it came to producing gasoline from coal. Nazism, apartheid, and international sanctions created a fuel source that might never have existed in a better world.The circuitous travels of the Fischer-Tropsch process, a chemical technique to convert natural gas and coal into liquid fuels, provide an object lesson in historical irony. Used by the Nazis to make oil from coal during World War II, it was commercialized by the century's second-most-odious racial supremacist regime in the 1950s through South Africa's state energy company. Now, that privatized company, Sasol, may help liberate Western democracies (and non-Western ones, like India) from the grip of crude oil produced largely by loathsome authoritarian regimes.
Sasol is the ExxonMobil of South Africa, though its annual sales of about $10 billion are around what Exxon Mobil does in about 10 days. With 30,000 employees, including the largest number of Ph.D.s of any company in the Southern Hemisphere, Sasol is one of South Africa's largest employers. It produces about 38 percent of South Africa's fuel needs and accounts for about 4.4 percent of the country's GDP...
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Letterman, O'Reilly grapple over 'failed policy' in Iraq
Bill O'Reilly, host of FOX News' The O'Reilly Factor, has made his second raucous appearance on CBS's The Late Show with David Letterman.In the appearance, which was taped earlier in the week but broadcast Friday evening, O'Reilly and host David Letterman continued the stick-and-move sarcastic jabbing that marked their first encounter.
At one point, Letterman called O'Reilly a "bonehead" to the audience's delight, before asserting that the reason why Americans are depressed has mostly to do with the "failed policy" of the war in Iraq.
O'Reilly: People are angry about Iraq. And they feel we need a change. And whenever you have a situation where Americans are - I used the word on the Factor tonight, I used the word "depressed." People don't want to watch the news, don't want to hear about Iraq, don't want to hear about Iran, about the nutty North Korean guy. They wanna watch Bowling for Dollars, Dialing for uh the Dancing with the Stars... are you gonna be on that?
Letterman: People are depressed. And rightly so because we have a failed policy and Americans, God bless them, are over there, volunteering to have joined the Army, are over there and giving their lives nearly to the number of 3,000 Americans so far, so yes... people are depressed, but it's not because they want to watch Dancing with the Stars.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
'Bush Proposes Making Illegal Immigrants 'Guest Voters'
In his boldest stroke to date to break the logjam over illegal immigration, President George W. Bush today proposed a "guest voter" program for illegal immigrants that would make them eligible to vote in the midterm elections on November 7.Speaking at a press conference at the White House this morning, Mr. Bush said that his "guest voter" proposal would allow illegal immigrants to attain full citizenship status for one day only.
"Illegal immigrants are important to this country, because they do many of the things that other Americans are unwilling to do," the president said. "Like voting."
According to the president's plan, undocumented immigrants would be bused to special "naturalization/voting booths" on November 7 where they could become citizens for the day simply by pulling a lever.
"Then, when their work is done, we'll make sure they're back on the other side of the border by November 8," Mr. Bush said. "Everyone wins."
Finish the Borowitz Report here...
Bush Says Tax Cuts Fueled Strong Economy
WASHINGTON — President Bush defended his tax cuts Saturday, saying they had fueled a strong U.S. economy despite news this week of a slowdown.In his weekly radio address, Bush reprised his campaign trail argument that if Democrats gain control of Congress, they will let tax cuts expire.
"Since 2001, President Bush's tax cuts have shifted federal tax payments from the richest Americans to a wide swath of middle-class families, the Congressional Budget Office has found, a conclusion likely to roil the presidential election campaign." - Washington Post, 2004
"Cutting your taxes worked," Bush said. "Unfortunately, the Democrats are still determined to raise your taxes, and if they gain control of the Congress, they can do so without lifting a finger."
Bush said taxes are a huge issue in the Nov. 7 election. He said the tax cuts orchestrated by his administration have left more money in the hands of workers, families and small businesses — money they have used to sustain a bustling economy.
A Commerce Department report Friday, however, stirred fresh debate about the country's financial health...
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Webb: Democrats Will Provide Iraq Remedy
RICHMOND, VA. — The only remedy to a series of Iraq policy failures by President Bush is a Democratic takeover of Congress in the Nov. 7 election, Virginia Senate candidate Jim Webb said Saturday.The former Republican, who was President Reagan's Navy secretary, said in the Democrats' weekly radio address that Bush's "incompetence" in Iraq had undercut the fight against terrorism.
Webb is locked in a close race in Virginia against Republican Sen. George Allen that could determine whether the Senate remains in GOP control.
"Since 2003, President Bush has laid out nine different plans [That's even more than I thought] for victory in Iraq, none of them serious and none of them workable. And most seriously, this incompetence has hindered our ability to fight international terror," Webb said.
Webb warned in a newspaper column in 2002, the year before Bush ordered the Iraq invasion, that a war there would destabilize the oil-rich Middle East and mire U.S. forces in a bloody and protracted conflict. As of Friday, 2,810 American troops had died in Iraq.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Webb on sex passage recital: 'It's smear after smear'
RICHMOND, Virginia (CNN) -- The bitter Senate campaign in Virginia turned uglier Friday when the Republican incumbent pulled up sexual passages from novels written by his Democratic opponent, who called the move baseless character assassination.In a news release and list of quotes posted Friday on the Drudge Report Web site, Sen. George Allen accused his opponent, former Navy Secretary Jim Webb, of "demeaning women" and "dehumanizing women, men and even children" through his fiction writings. At least two of the listed passages include children in sexual situations.
There was, however, a Thursday statement from Chris LaCivita, general consultant for the Allen campaign, saying some references in Webb's novels are "disturbing" and "portray women as servile, subordinate and promiscuous." [They're effing stories, for Pete's sake... Does J.K. Rowling believe in dragons because she writes about them in Harry Potter books?]
Webb served in Vietnam and later led the Navy during the Reagan administration. He is running as a Democrat. [Again, we've got another lifelong civilian challenging the character of an American war hero. Sure, war heroes aren't necessarily saints, but don't people get tired of this personal crap? Do people even care about the issues anymore?]
He has written six best-selling novels from 1978 to 2001, his Web site says. His writings have largely focused on war and military storylines, influenced by things he experienced.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
It's fierce and very close, so now the money talks - and it talks dirty
THE most expensive US congressional election in history has almost certainly become the nastiest as a dark tide of attack advertisements sweeps across American TV screens.With control of the House of Representatives and the Senate hanging in the balance, rival candidates are plumbing new depths of taste and duplicity in their desperate quest for votes.
“Brad Miller spent your money to study the masturbation habits of old men,” says an advert paid for by Vernon Robinson, Mr Miller’s Republican opponent for a North Carolina district. These advertisements also allege that Mr Miller failed to support the purchase of better body armour for soldiers in Iraq, saying that he “votes for sex but not for our troops”.
Mr Miller was in Iraq at the time of that body armour vote, while his interest in elderly men masturbating appears limited to his opposition to a Bill scrapping federal grants for sexual studies. [Remind me again why I never want to run for U.S. Senate... Good Lord. Why do candidates put themselves through this crap?]
In Tennessee this week the Republicans broadcast an advert showing an attractive, bare-shouldered blonde saying that she had met Harold Ford Jr, the Democrat senatorial candidate, at a Playboy party. It concludes with her winking into the camera and whispering: “Harold, call me.” [Shame... Shame on the people behind that ad]
Mr Ford, who is trying to become the first black senator for the South since the American Civil War [The South just doesn't change at the speed of light], was one of 3,000 guests at a Playboy party for the Super Bowl last year. Black groups have complained that the advert, which has now been withdrawn by the Republicans, was playing up to the residual sensitivity of southern voters towards inter-racial dating and possibly a stereotype of African- American males.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Rove 'dukes it out' with NPR host over polling data
During a National Public Radio interview, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove "duked it out" with the host over polling data, RAW STORY has learned.The exchange took place yesterday during the White House's scheduled "Radio Day."
After midterm election interviewer Robert Siegel stated that "many might consider you on the optimistic end of realism" regarding Republican hopes to retain both Houses in November, Rove suggested that the NPR host was biased.
"Not that you would be exhibiting a bias or anything like that," Rove said. "You're just making a comment." [HAHAHA! Well, I guess Rove has a taste of how every Democrat who's ever been interviewed by Bill O'Reilly must feel...]
"I'm looking at all the same polls that you're looking at every day," Seigel responded. [Uh... I doubt it]
"No you're not!" Rove exclaimed.
Rove said that he was reviewing 68 polls a week, and that "unlike the general public, I'm allowed to see the polls on the individual races," as opposed to public polls reported in the media. [Is Rove trying to intimidate and dishearten liberals into not voting??? Maybe he figures he can convince the world he's a mystical wizard with minions and secret election spells, and that liberals will be so daunted by his great power they won't donate to the DNC or hit their polling places on Nov. 7...
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
President Bush Uses "The Google"
Those of us over the age of 55 may not see the humor in this clip. Age-related techno-illiteracy is a serious condition afflicting many of our country's seniors ... but trust me if you can -- this clip is hilarious! I'm not quite 55 yet, but I'm already beginning to show the signs of techno-illiteracy. I can't figure out my cell phone.Rumsfeld: Terrorists use media to manipulate American people
I think Secretary Rumsfeld is half right again. Terrorists do try to manipulate American public opinion through the media, but does that imply we've running an effective war in Iraq? Does that mean we've made good decisions along the way? No, one thing has nothing to do with the other.Some in the American media are biased, but by in large MOST are not. The whole truth is NOT reaching the American people. That is true. We don't see enough of the good work being done by soldiers in Iraq, but none of it changes the bottom line: we're still losing the war in Iraq. The evidence is everywhere. There's no mistaking it, and while, yes, there has been good done in Iraq, and U.S. forces have done the best with the tools they've been given, but as flawed as the media can be, we cannot overlook the increasing violence in Iraq. It is getting worse, not better, and THAT is why the Secretary of Defense finds himself such a hated man by so many Americans. I guarantee you that had America won the war by now, had we brought our troops home by now, he would NOT be quite as unpopular as he is today. He wouldn't be loved like Mother Theresa or MLK Jr., but he wouldn't be as bad off as his is now.
10/26/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The "center of gravity" in the Iraq war is in America with the American people, not on the battlefield, and the media is a powerful tool that influences the people's will, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Oct. 24.
"This is the first war that's been conducted in the 21st century with all the new media realities of 24-hour talk radio and Sony cams and digital cameras and news constantly on television," Secretary Rumsfeld. "But the American people have a pretty good center of gravity.
"They've got a good inner gyroscope," he said. "And it may be disorienting for a time; it may blow us off course somewhat, but we tend to re-center."
America's wars always have had critics, but the difference in this war is the prevalence of the media, Secretary Rumsfeld said. Terrorists recognize the influence the media has, so they use their own media committees to determine how best to manipulate the American public through the media, he said.
The terrorists plan their attacks to deliberately dishearten the American people and make them think the cause isn't right or that America makes terrorism worse, Secretary Rumsfeld said.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Mexican president criticizes U.S. fence
MEXICO CITY - Mexico's president sharply criticized President Bush's signing Thursday of a bill to build 700 miles of additional fencing on its southern border, calling the move an "embarrassment."Bush signed the bill, approved by the Senate last month, despite pleas from the Mexican government for a veto.
President Vicente Fox told reporters in the Caribbean resort city of Cancun that the fence would not stop millions of Mexicans from heading north in search of jobs.
"It is an embarrassment for the United States," Fox said. "It is proof, perhaps, that the United States does not see immigration as a subject that corresponds to both countries."
President-elect Felipe Calderon, who takes over from Fox on Dec. 1, agreed.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Dem Senate candidate Webb's novels show graphic sex scenes, opponent Allen pounces
Sen. George Allen, R-VA, unleashed a press release late Thursday that exposed his rival's fiction writing, which includes graphic underage sex scenes.Of course, this won't come as a surprise to readers of Jim Webb's novels, like Sen. John McCain, who has endorsed Allen. McCain enthusiastically praised Webb's book, "Lost Soldiers," and was quoted on the book jacket.
"James Webb's new novel paints a portrait of a modern Vietnam charged with hopes for the future but haunted by the ghosts of its war-torn past," McCain wrote about the book. "It captures well the lingering scars of the war, and exposes the tension between the dynamism of a new generation and the invisible bondage of an older generation for whom wartime allegiances, and animosities, are rendered no less vivid by the passage of time. A novel of revenge and redemption that tells us much about both where Vietnam is headed and where it has been."
Last month, authors Stephen King and John Grisham hosted a fundraiser for Webb in Charlottesville. At that event, they mocked Allen and his campaign's criticism of Webb's fiction.
– Lost Soldiers: “A shirtless man walked toward them along a mud pathway. His muscles were young and hard, but his face was devastated with wrinkles. His eyes were so red that they appeared to be burned by fire. A naked boy ran happily toward him from a little plot of dirt. The man grabbed his young son in his arms, turned him upside down, and put the boy’s penis in his mouth.”
Bantam Books, NY, 1st Edition, 2001, (hard cover), page 333.
Quote is from para. 10,.Chap. 34.
The press release, as provided by the Allen Campaign:
WEBB’S WEIRD WORLD
The Author’s Disturbing Writings Show a Continued Pattern of Demeaning Women
· Some of Webb’s writings are very disturbing for a candidate hoping to represent the families of Virginians in the U.S. Senate.
· Many excellent books about the United States military and wartime service accomplish their purposes, and even win awards, without systematically demeaning women, and without dehumanizing women, men and even children.
White House Courts Vote of Amnesia Victim
A man who found himself in Denver with absolutely no memory of who he was or how he got there has now found himself at the epicenter of the midterm election campaign, as the White House moved aggressively today to court his vote.The amnesia victim, who was known only as "Al" and could not recall any recent events, was instantly pegged as an "ideal voter" by G.O.P. political strategist Karl Rove, who flew the man to Washington today for a private meeting with President Bush in the White House.
"Here's a guy who has no memory of Iraq, Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, or Mark Foley," Mr. Rove told reporters today. "From where I sit, I think we have a chance at getting this guy's vote."
According to White House aides, the amnesia victim's meeting with the president went well, and was capped by Mr. Bush presenting him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Finish the Borowitz Report here...
Limbaugh on Michael J. Fox: "I Take Back None of What I Said"
Rush Limbaugh is sticking to his claim that Michael J. Fox is exaggerating the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease — by “acting” or “not taking his medications” — in an advertisement promoting stem cell research.The media falsely reported yesterday that Limbaugh “apologized” to Fox. On his radio show yesterday, Limbaugh said he regrets nothing.
"I stand by what I said. I take back none of what I said. I wouldn’t rephrase it any differently. It is what I believe; it is what I think. It is what I have found to be true." - Limbaugh
Military in Iraq blocking major liberal websites, not conservative sites
This just blows me away. Un-f*cking believable. According to the Wonkette and a letter they say they received from a serviceman in Iraq, the U.S. military is deliberately blocking access to popular liberal websites while ALLOWING access to equally popular conservative ones. Among the sites blocked are DailyKos and Talkingpointsmemo. Freerepublic, perhaps the largest site on the conservative side, is among those allowed..."It seems that every non-conservative politics website has been blocked by our firewall guys…including your site. The reason it is blocked is because it is a “personal page.” Which means they don’t have a reason to block it … but they want to block it, so they do. This was done recently, just in time for mid-term elections. As I said, it was not only your website, I have gone through lists of liberal sites and most of them are blocked. I’ve also taken the time to go to some conservative sites….none of which are blocked.
I don’t have the words to describe how I feel. They have sent me to this desert three times…each time saying that we are defending freedom…which is BS and everyone knows it. And on top of that they have taken away many of the freedoms that we are supposedly fighting for….
I don’t think there is much anyone can do about this, but I just wanted you to know that this was still going on."
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
A conservative's response to Olbermann's reports
Even for a particularly fevered election season you would think that an MSNBC guy who wants to convince his audience that he's both morally and intellectually superior to the Fox crew would have the brains to understand that such a claim requires proof [Oh, boy, here we go...]. Uh...apparently not.Keith Olbermann, you see, doesn't like President Bush. So far so good. I love the President [that says a lot about the author of this article] but this is a democracy, and if Bush-bashing is the way Keith thinks he can bring more eyeballs to his show [actually, it has worked. Olbermann's ratings have doubled in the past few months] and stop those 700 pink slips at his failing network [he's not responsible for the entire network], so be it. Maybe he really believes I have an undiscovered soft spot for his translation of the Angry Left "Bush lied" mantra into the more formal Olbermann-speak: "Your words are lies, Sir. They are lies that imperil us all." [Uh... don't make like your conservatives don't do the same thing. Cut and run? What the hell is that supposed to imply? Since this war started turning south the president has been calling Democrats cowards without actually saying it. Are we not supposed to be able to figure out what defeatocrat really means???]
Come to think of it, that last sentence has some bearing on what has emerged as Keith's strange defense of slavery. Why? Because in his haste to Bush-bash on the signing of the Military Commissions Act and what Olbermann calls "the death of habeas corpus" (meaning the denial of certain rights to terrorists), Mr. Olbermann uttered words that are, if I may borrow, "lies, Sir."
Olbermann charges George W. Bush has done something no one has managed to do before -- "killed the writ of habeas corpus." To illustrate the death of this ancient principle -- which he goes on to say "kills our Bill of Rights" Olbermann then goes back through a highly selective version of American history while making a very curious omission. An omission that makes one wonder just what really goes on in this guy's head [the REAL lesson here, if one cares at all about the big picture, is that this president has done away with habeas corpus. Nothing changes that. Sure, you can try to dismantle Mr. Olbermann's every word, but just like in the Mark Foley scandal, the overriding truth is still clear. In this case it's simple: no more habeas corpus. And THAT's what bothers so many people. More people care about habeas corpus than care about Keith Olbermann. No offense, Keith].
One of the reasons black Americans are not slaves today, or even slaves living in another country called the Confederate States of America, is that President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Exxon Mobil could fund Iraq war with company's profits
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) on Thursday said its profit rose to $10.49 billion in the third quarter, making it the second-largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company. Let's just say that one more time: making it the second-largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company.Exxon Mobil is raking in money fast enough to fund the entire Iraq war by itself.
The world's biggest oil company said its net income (profit) amounted to $1.77 per share for the July-September period, up from $9.92 billion, or $1.58 per share, a year ago.
The results surpassed the expectations of Wall Street analysts. On average, analysts expected the company to earn $1.59 per share in the quarter.
Revenue fell to $99.59 billion from $100.72 billion from a year ago, which saw then-record oil prices because of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Last year Exxon profited greatly from an event in which more than 1,000 American citizens died.
The largest quarterly profit ever was Exxon's $10.71 billion profit in the fourth quarter of 2005.
Obama Imperils Democrats' Losing Tradition
The sudden ascendancy of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has many Democratic Party regulars afraid that a White House win by the charismatic politician would destroy a losing tradition that has taken years to build, Democratic leaders confirmed today.Across the country, polls showing Sen. Obama to have rising appeal across a broad spectrum of likely voters have rattled the nerves of longtime Democrats, who take pride in their party's record of futility in presidential elections.
"This is the party of Dukakis and Mondale, Kerry and McGovern," said longtime Democrat Carol Foyler, who still sports a "Kucinich in '04" bumper sticker on the back of her Saturn. "We have worked long and hard to build that losing record and we are not prepared to pour it down the drain."
Ms. Foyler said that if Sen. Obama were to win the White House in 2008, "such longtime Democratic traditions as concession speeches, finger-pointing, and clinical depression would be a thing of the past."
Finish the Borowitz Report here...
White House spinning out of control
The latest rounds of spin from the Bush administration are really straining the credulity of the press corps and the public.First, over the weekend, we were asked to believe that the president's strategy in Iraq has never been to "stay the course." [What they're saying, in effect, is that those of us who heard them say 'stay the course' all those many times before were hearing things. We must be going crazy. We're hearing things.] This in spite of all the times in the past that Bush himself has used the phrase, which happens to accurately define his approach.
And now, as of this morning, we're being asked to believe that staying the course (or whatever you want to call it) is working [Here's the crux of it: they still insist their "plan" is working, when the truth is they don't really have a plan at all. They say they want to win, but they don't really know what it takes. There was a plan at Normandy, a plan for the post-war periods in Germany and Japan after WWII. There has been NO working plan for the occupation of Iraq. Step one, before we even know what should change, is to get people in Washington who are actually able and willing to consider change.], and that Iraqi security forces could be largely self-sufficient within 12 to 18 months.
Again, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Rush Limbaugh: backpeddling fast on Michael J. Fox Parkinson's remarks
The day after conservative radio talkshow host Rush Libmaugh accused Michael J. Fox of either pretending to have Parkinson's tremors or manipulating his medicine to exaggerate his symptoms in a new ad in which Fox supports a Democratic candidate who supports stem cell research, Limbaugh is backpeddling fast.After being accused of being a heartless idiot, and after countless medical doctors have come out to say that, yes, Mr. Fox does have typical Parkinson's symptoms, Limbaugh is extending the olive branch by saying that Fox is an unwitting pawn in the Democrats' evil plan to take over America.
Rush Limbaugh obviously did not expect the backlash his attack on Fox would have, and now he's in full damage control mode, trying to "explain away" what he "actually" meant when he in effect called Michael J. Fox a lying scumbag. Limbaugh figures, "Maybe if I just explain and explain and explain people won't remember what I actually said yesterday. I'll just keep explaining and rationalizing and explaining and they'll forget what I REALLY said..."
SH: One of the big issues in the Missouri Senate race -- as you know, we touched on it yesterday -- is the Michael J. Fox commercial which is entirely misleading and which is in itself an attack ad, and it is filled with disinformation about embryonic stem cell research and how Jim Talent wants to criminalize it. Embryonic stem cell research -- and, by the way, Fox is doing similar commercials in Maryland now for Ben Cardin against Michael Steele. But embryonic stem cell research is currently legal and completely unrestricted in both Maryland and Missouri and in the vast majority of other states. It's largely personal and institutional ethics that keep scientists from cloning research.
The debate we're having is almost always about governmental funding or radical measures like the one currently on the ballot in Missouri, which is Amendment 2, which would write a right to cloning into the state constitution of Missouri, and it's one of these cleverly worded things that makes you: if you vote yes, you're voting no, and vice-versa. So we'll talk more about the Michael Fox situation because, as I knew yesterday, the Drive-By Media, including things like Inside Edition, are all panting (panting) to make something out of this that isn't. We will address that, but Michael J. Fox entered the political arena long ago. He became a US citizen in 2000.
He's from Canada. He was active in the Kerry campaign in 2004 and he's entered the political arena again with this series of commercials for Ben Cardin in Maryland and Claire McCaskill in Missouri. One of the tactics the Democrats have...
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Stephen King, major Democratic supporter
I was surprised to discover this...Novelist Stephen King has been a major contributor to Democratic candidates for years, giving more than $150,000 to date.
SOME RECENT CONTRIBUTIONS
Cheney: Hillary could win, Obama too inexperienced
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday he thinks Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton could win the presidency. He said Democratic Sen. Barack Obama might be viewed by voters as too inexperienced [But the vice president was also the point man before the war with Iraq proclaiming just how easy the war would be, how we'd be greeted as liberators. Remember that whenever his lips move].Cheney assessed the Democratic field of potential candidates for president in 2008 in an interview with conservative talk show host Sean Hannity.
"I think Hillary Clinton is a formidable candidate," Cheney said. "I think she could win [Now, why would Vice President Dick Cheney tell America which Democratic candidate could beat his fellow Neocons in the next presidential election? Come on, he's blowing smoke. In one ear and out the other.] I hope she doesn't. I disagree with her on nearly all the issues, but nobody should underestimate her [Nobody should underestimate you, Mr. Vice President]. She's a very serious candidate for president."
Polls show Clinton leading by a wide margin in her campaign for re-election during the nationwide vote on Nov. 7.
Cheney said Obama, an Illinois Democrat, was an "attractive guy. Don't know him well, met him a few times [I've said it before and I'll say it again -- I want Obama to run. What I've seen of him I like. He connects with me. I think he's a good man, a considerate man who really cares about Americans, and not just the rich ones. Unlike many in Washington today, he has a heart AND a brain and knows how to use them.] I think at this stage, my initial take on him was he's been two years as a senator [Look at where all the vice president's years of experience have got him. Or Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's years of experience. Experience in politics is overrated...] I think people might want a little more experience than that, given the nature of the times we live in [Eh...]. But certainly, he's an attractive candidate. If he decides to run, he'll be a player on the Democratic side."
Obama said Sunday he was considering a run for president in 2008, backing off previous statements that he would not do so.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Bush Advisers Blitz Radio Airwaves
President Bush's political top gun Karl Rove gushes with optimism about Election Day [maybe Rove thinks that if he can intimidate Democratic voters into thinking he's some kind of wizard, they'll throw up their hands in surrender and decide not to vote]. National security adviser Stephen Hadley says the Iraqis need to do more to secure their nation and do it faster. Presidential confidant Dan Bartlett takes a few verbal punches at Democrats.It was "Radio Day" at the White House where more than 30 talk show hosts were invited to set up shop in a heated white tent [BAM! Wow, I wish Democrats could organize events like this one. Of course, it helps when you have the White House. People like to attend events at the White House] on the North Lawn to quiz senior administration officials. Beginning at 5:30 a.m., the broadcasters chatted live about everything from Iraq to homeland security to the Nov. 7 elections.
Rove predicted the Republicans would retain control of Congress, discounting polls that show the Democrats threatening to take over [On Election Day we'll know if Rove really had a secret weapon to win, if he was delusional, or if he was just faking confidence].
"You heard it here first," Rove declared in his interview with Fox News Radio.
Nearby, Charlie Sykes with WTMJ in Milwaukee, Wis., told White House counselor Bartlett, "I think we're about a minute out."
Bartlett, sitting with earphones hugging his head, also predicted a Republican victory. He said that while the Democrats attack the president, they don't articulate a different direction for America [Bullsh*t. What is Bartlett talking about? Neither side has a working plan, right? The Republicans say "victory" as if that's a plan. How do you follow a step-by-step plan when the plan is one word? At least the Democrats understand that "the plan" has to change if it isn't working. That'd be step #1, wouldn't you think? Change the plan if it isn't working.].
"They have yet to make the case about what they are for, and that's why I think they're going to come up short in this election," he said.
Talk about Iraq was buzzing in the tent.
"We are going to adapt," Bartlett said. "We are going to have a dynamic approach [if anyone still believes these guys they must have been hiding in a tent somewhere because the facts don't lie. Look at Iraq, look at Afghanistan, look at acts of terrorism around the world, and then look at who's been occupying the White House and controlling Congress since 2000] to the situation on the ground, but we're not going to throw up our hands and say, 'It's unwinnable.'"
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Conservatives shift Iraq rhetoric to blame Iraqis for everything
Just a brief editorial...I've noticed an Iraq policy shift in the White House's rhetoric and the spin coming out of the conservative media this past week. Each of the past few days in a row FOX News columnist Bill O'Reilly has made a point of blaming the Iraqi people for the violence in Iraq. It's as if to say, "Yes, Iraq is a mess, but it's their fault. It's their fault and theirs alone."
So that as the violence worsens in Iraq, expecting that it will as long as American policy does not dramatically change, the White House won't be to blame for any of it.
Two quotes from O'Reilly's latest rant on Fox:
"If we had pacified Iraq, President Bush's approval rating would be about 60 percent. But Americans are dying in that chaotic country and most of us are looking at the Iraqi people and asking, "What the heck's going on? When are you guys going to knock it off?""
"The USA must demand the Iraqi people fight for their freedom and give the Iraqi government a private ultimatum: Get things under control. If you don't, you can't count on us to do it for you."
I would agree with Mr. O'Reilly if for one second I believed the White House had any intentions of leaving Iraq -- ever. Do I think the White House and Bill O'Reilly are in direct and frequent communication, coordinating their bullet points? Yes, absolutely. Look at how often the president and vice president provide interviews to friendly FOX News broadcasters. Call me paranoid, but I think the White House loves FOX News precisely BECAUSE it's biased.
Bottom line: don't think for one second the White House is serious when it talks about leaving Iraq if the Iraqis don't stand up for their own security. Look at their actions -- what policy changes are we seeing? None. We're seeing none. What about getting more international assistance? A proclamation demanding that Iraq reach milestones to allow us to leave? Choosing an Iraq envoy? Starting to discuss drastic measures like the possible breakup of Iraq? Begging the U.N. and NATO for assistance? ANYTHING!? Instead, we get more 'stay the course,' even if they've decided not to call it that anymore.
Actions speak louder than words.
Lieberman Blasted on All Sides at Debate
HARTFORD, CONN. — Sen. Joe Lieberman sat between his Democratic and Republican rivals in Monday's final Connecticut Senate debate — and got it from both sides as well as from hecklers.The three-term senator, who has a 17-point lead in the latest statewide poll, struck back at Democratic challenger Ned Lamont, who has assailed him as a career politician desperate to hang onto his seat and one beholden to powerful Washington special interests.
"You constantly distort and, frankly, just tell lies," Lieberman, who ran as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Lamont, said at the Garde Arts Center New London. "No matter how many millions of his own family's money Ned Lamont spends, the polls show the people of Connecticut are not buying it. They can't be bought."
Lamont, a wealthy cable TV executive who has poured $12.7 million of his own fortune into his campaign, bristled.
"Senator Lieberman just called me a liar and he made a lot of outrageous accusations," Lamont replied. "Senator, everything we're talking about is your record, and you can't run from your record." [I hate to see much attention paid to this race in Connecticut because Sen. Joe Lieberman has it locked up, but from Lamont's remarks it's clear there's a lot of bad blood out there.]
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Democratic U.S. House candidate apologizes for Native American remark
(AP) Democratic U.S. House candidate Steve Kagen apologized Monday for commenting that he was late for a meeting on an Indian reservation because "we're on Injun time.""I did not mean any harm by my words and I humbly apologize if I offended anyone. That was not my intent," he said in a statement hours after the National Republican Congressional Committee released a tape recording of the comment.
Kagen attended a meeting Friday on the nearby Oneida Reservation and at his next stop in Green Bay he made the following remarks:
"Appreciate getting here almost on time. Our excuse in Oneida was, well, we're on Injun time. They don't tell time by the clock. Our excuse here is that I am a doctor and that we're never on time."
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Rush Limbaugh attacks Michael J. Fox: ”he was either off the medication or he was acting. He is an actor, after all.”
There are rumors [click here to view rumors] floating around that my friend and yours, Rush Limbaugh, accused Michael J. Fox. of deliberately going off of his meds to appear on camera with exaggerated symptoms of his disease for dramatic effect in the following new ad. Meds are something Rush does have a little experience with.Bush Drops `Stay the Course' on Iraq to Emphasize Flexibility
Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration has dropped the phrase "stay the course'' from discussions about Iraq as a recent surge in violence has forced a change in tactics on the ground and renewed calls in the U.S. for a different approach to the conflict.President George W. Bush remains committed to the goal of setting Iraq up to govern itself and take responsibility for quelling sectarian strife, Press Secretary Tony Snow said today. Because the administration is flexible about how to achieve those goals, he said, Bush is no longer talking about sticking to one approach [This is just pure politics. I believe the president was serious each and every time he said 'stay the course,' and I think by that he meant exactly what we know he meant -- stick with a losing strategy to stabilize Iraq with the same troop levels, same international help, same overall plan for permanent bases in the country, same unwillingness to consider alternatives like splitting Iraq up, etc. 'Stay the course' was and is how the president still feels. For him to say that hasn't been the case is garbage].
"It left the wrong impression about what was going on,'' Snow said. "And it allowed critics to say, `Well, here's an administration that's just embarked upon a policy of not looking at what the situation is,' when, in fact, it's just the opposite."[Look, I think we know that the military is always making minor adjustments to its military strategy, but the problems in Iraq are the fault of the civilian leadership back home in the U.S. They're the ones who haven't been flexible enough about our options to help out soldiers secure Iraq. If the administration had secured another 100,000 U.N peacekeepers for Anbar Province, don't you think our own soldiers in Iraq would be grateful for the help?
Democrats have been repeating the phrase, which Bush has used in speeches and other remarks, in their criticism of the president's policy as they campaign overturn the Republican majority in Congress in the Nov. 7 election. The administration and congressional Republicans are countering by trying to reshape the debate on the war, which polls show is increasingly unpopular with the U.S. public.
Snow and White House Counselor Dan Bartlett stressed that the U.S. is being flexible while staying true to the president's overall strategy.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
US commander sets 12-18 month timeframe for Iraq
[after getting his ear chewed off by President Bush...] The US military commander in Iraq, General George Casey, has said the country's own armed forces should be able to take over security responsibility within the next 12 to 18 months [How can we be sure? The war has already lasted far longer than we were told it would. Why should we now believe it will end when a U.S. general predicts that it will? Honestly, why should we believe General Casey is correct?."I believe in 12 to 18 months Iraqi security will be completely capable of taking over their own security," Casey told a press conference in Baghdad Tuesday.
The American general said the Iraqi armed forces had suffered 300 "martyrs" in clashes with insurgents during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that ended this week.
Since the killing of Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a US air strike in June, the insurgents "remain wounded but lethal", he said, while claiming the Americans were winning the battle.
"We have continuously adapted to stay ahead of the enemy," he said.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
Bill O'Reilly's Exclusive Interview with President Bush
Transcript of recept FOX News interview with President Bush...BILL O'REILLY, HOST: FOX News military analysts say Iran now is behind the insurgency in Iraq to a large extent. The war has morphed, it has shifted and that U.S. forces are now fighting an insurgency fueled by Iran. Is that true?
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the enemy is more complex than that. We are concerned about some Iranian involvement. Particularly in the delivery of certain kind of weapons. But the violence that the American people see on their screens is some sectarianism, some criminal activity and Al Qaeda.
And we're dealing with all three. And the strategy in Iraq — or the tactics in Iraq is changing constantly. So obviously, if we see more Iranian involvement, we'll adjust our tactics to meet that threat.
O'REILLY: This month,