SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN, pro-war "Independent" from Connecticut, Capitol Dirty Bomb, who threatens to go Republican if the Democrats get too anti-war. Ending the war, of course, is the mandate Democrats have had since the last election. Their one vote majority in the Senate means that issue #1 is not clear thinking about the Middle East, but . . . Lieberman!
JIMMY CARTER whose Carter Center is addressing neglected diseases like the guinea worm, which grows inside of people who do not have access to clean drinking water. These worms then, as in a horror movie, emerge from the skin. The Carter Center is on track to eradicating this disease.
Pres. Carter may be able to relate. Recently Brandeis University donors threatened to cut funds after a Carter speaking appearance there. His offense? A discomfiting analysis of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Censorship can be kind of like a guinea worm.
JOHN NEGROPONTE who is, apparently, nostalgic for the Iran-Contra Scandal. According to Seymour Hersh in today's New Yorker, Negroponte, as head of National Intelligence, was, in effect, funneling money, with the help of Saudi Prince Bandar, to Sunni jihadists in Lebanon to counter the Shiite Hezbollah. And among those jihadists . . . AL-QAEDA! TheBush gang are now desperate to stop the “Shiite Crescent”. The one they facilitated. And all this without Congressional knowledge or oversight. I gotta sit down.
This from Late Edition yesterday:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/02/25/seymour-hersh-negroponte-iran-contra-fundsoh-my/
TONY BLAIR who yesterday began to shut down the British end of the Iraq fiasco. "What all this means is not that Basra is how we want it to be.", he said, "but it does mean that the next chapter in Basra's history can be written by Iraqis." Blair, once again offering up a fine syntactical model for Bush.
PS: For the second day running The NY Times keeps this story off of page one. Japanese Gyroball made it though.
SCHTUPRAH
Symbol of the merger between XM (Oprah) and Sirius (Howard Stern) radio. This new giant consolidation breaks FCC rules. These corporations want a waiver, claiming that this monopoly will be facing heated competition from things like . . . i-Pods.
Congressman Jack Murtha who is proposing legislation to make the escalation contingent on funding to properly arm, train, rest and care for the troops. There is expected to be an anti-Iran war element to this as well. This will halt the "surge" because Bush has so profoundly neglected the troops in the field and at home.
Murtha on the War: http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/pa12_murtha/PRtestimony.html
PS: SUNDAY FUNNIES
"We don't have so much an anti-war movement as we have an anti-war country.", George Will, This Week, 2/18/07
"(In the end Bush) is going to hand off a rising Shiia crescent and an outraged Sunni crescent, which we are sort of siding with.", David Brooks, Meet the Press, 2/18/07
New Fox Poll: 55% of Americans now want a cut off of funding for the escalation.
While refusing to admit a "mistake", presidential candidate Hillary "Bachman" Clinton and her speechwriters enter the War Room, racing against time to find the perfect language to appear hawkish AND anti-war. Fighting the Vast Logical Thought Conspiracy.
FLYNT LEVERETT, former assistant to Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, verified the 2003 "serious proposal" from Tehran for a comprehensive agenda for US-Iranian rapprochement. Last week Rice faulted him for not telling her about this communique, "I don't know what he's talking about.", she said. Leverette is confident that Powell and Rice had seen it. Yesterday he accused Rice of "misleading Congress and the American people on this issue."
PS: Saw today where Charles Gibson became the top-rated news anchor. I say congrats to the old boy. Glad to see he still gets work.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, newly minted presidential candidate, in this exchange with John Howard, Australian PM.
Mr Howard had earlier attacked Senator Obama's plan to withdraw US combat troops from Iraq by March 31, 2008.
The conservative leader said on commercial television that Senator Obama's pledges on Iraq were good news only for insurgents operating in the war-ravaged country.
"I think he's wrong. I think that will just encourage those who want to completely destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory," Mr Howard told the Nine Network.
"If I were running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory not only for Obama but also for the Democrats."
"I think it's flattering that one of George Bush's allies on the other side of the world started attacking me the day after I announced," Mr Obama told reporters in Iowa.
"I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops in Iraq, and my understanding is Mr Howard has deployed 1400, so if he is ... to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq.
"Otherwise it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric."
Obama may be more different than we know; a Democrat who fights back . . with laser weapons. This election could get very interesting.
HILLARY MANN, former NSC Director of Persian Gulf Affairs. While we wait around for the third US carrier group to make it to the vicinity of Iran, she has gone public with what she knows about Bush-Iran policy. The Bush Administration is actively goading Iran, she says, to create a pretext for an attack.
In this week's Newsweek she says, “They intend to be as provocative as possible and make Iranians do something (America) would be forced to retaliate for”
On CNN she said, “(Bush) believes that the Iranian government is illegitimate . . . in its present form. There can never be the stability and democratization, that he believes needs to come to the Middle East. That has long been the policy. What you see now is the opportunity on the nuclear issue and what’s happening in Iraq and the terrorist front. Now is the opportunity to increase provocation on Iran to force them to do something to us to force retaliation.”
CNN interview:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Frm._Bush_NSC_Dir._says_US_0212.html
RUPERT MURDOCH who was interviewed last week and described what "fair and balanced" means to him. Murdoch was asked if News Corp. had managed to shape the agenda on the war in Iraq. "No, I don't think so. We tried." Asked for further comment, he said: "We basically supported the Bush policy in the Middle East, but we have been very critical of his execution." Okay, not big news in that we all knew where they stood. But we can't forget the Mainstream Media's war whoop into Iraq. And not be unaware of the current one toward Iran.
Media Freakshow Caravan Hits the Motherlode. America duck and cover.
On Pentagon report due today:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/02/09/MNGLQO1HUD1.DTL
LISA NOWAK, sad Florida astronaut, blessedly caught in personal turmoil just in time to end the Mainstream Media Freak Show drought. The gap between the OJ non-book and this was unconscionable. Another chance for media outlets to shoo-in those non-news readers/viewers for some good padding for the next quarter. And as for other "news", give me a break. At last here's a junk news junket we can all go for. So what's up with that diaper thing?
REP. LYNN WOOLSEY (seen here being bussed by Rev. Jesse Jackson, in a way too-nice illustration) who has introduced along with two other congresswoman HR. 508. A beautiful piece of BINDING legislation that would:
1-End the occupation
2-Accelerate training of Iraqi forces
3-Pursue diplomacy
4-Fully fund our commitments to veterans
5-Turn security and military ops over to Iraqis in 6 months.
Contacting your congressman, senator on this should not be slowed by Bush's or the Senate's blindness. This will pave the way for the evolving debate in which, it seems clear to this one drowsy cartoonist, this will be the way forward.
Info: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/17/112439/808
ARNOLD "I need a vacation" SCHWARZENEGGER who, caught on tape, aside from blunt remarks about California pols, expressed distaste for fencing off Mexico. He then argued that Mexicans in California ought not display the Mexican flag. “We love Mexico and we go there on vacation ... yes, everything. We love to hear the Mariachi music, all this stuff," Schwarzenegger said. "But up here, for us to feel sympathetic towards you, you have to carry the American flag and you have to say, 'We want to be part of you. We love you."'
12 million gauche tourists!
GEORGE W. BUSH
Who, in a recent AP-AOL poll, ranked among Americans as their # 1 villain, coming out ahead of Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Satan, by several lengths. We knew he could do it.
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061228005253&newsLang=en
CHARLIE CRIST
Governor of Florida, who yesterday endorsed the use of optical scan voting machines with paper ballots in all 67 counties. This will mean scrapping all touch-screen machines at a cost of $32.5 million. This could start a significant trend across the country.
Proof positive: Dump a Bush, Have a Nice Day.
SEYMOUR HERSH Of The New Yorker, speaking at a symposium last week. About Bush, he said, "He's a total radical, probably the most radical president we've ever had in terms of his definition of the power of the presidency," he said. "There's nothing more dangerous than a radical who doesn't have information, doesn't learn from information and doesn't learn from the past." This radicalism, he said, has dangerous implications. "This is a guy who wants to leave office with the Iranian books clean," he said of Bush. "None of this means it's going to happen," he told the hushed audience. "It could be better under (current Secretary of Defense Robert] Gates), but we'll have to wait and see." Hersh said that not even negative press coverage has slowed the administration. "They couldn't care less about what we write. They're immune, inured to what The New York Times can write, what The New Yorker can write," he said. http://www.tuftsdaily.com/home/index.cfm This blog is dedicated to Molly Ivins and is a supporter of the Molly Ivins Festschrift, a project to carry on her journalistic standards, values and content in the works of her many colleagues and admirers.
