Michael Moore is first..................

Howard Dean is first.
MM makes good movies.

Ed Schultz is on an IMPEACHMENT move. He had Kucinich on today, and has responded to CNN request for tapes of Sen. Boxers comments on dictatorship and impeachment. According to Schultz, Jack Cafferty was going to use them today on Blitzer show.

Great picture of DFA Chairman Dean.

Barbara Boxer tells left-wing talk show host Ed Schultz that impeachment should be on the table because this administration is like a dictatorship. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv97uWFFx...

Barbara Boxer speaks out on impeachment and censure http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goUIob_o4...

55.

Susan Rowe

Sitka

Most of the politicians of today have law degrees
===============

Sitka has a BS degree in BS from SKRU U

House Passes Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act

The House has passed the Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act by a vote of 223-201. This marks the largest vote in favor of redeployment to date. full article: http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=580

4. BARBARA BOXER supports the Biden-Gelb initiative for a responsible exit from Iraq, or a variation thereof, since September 2006

jim dean, where is your orange shirt?

just kidden. jim is a nice guy. caring and smart. and funny.

just don't ride in a cab with him. right jim?

1. Ye shall be burned at the stake for blasphemy

6.

FRED from OR


That comment was unwarranted and very mean-spirited.

Jim Webb "Meets the Press" (+)
by: Lowell
Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 14:28:16 PM EDT

[subscribe]

Check it out, this should be interesting.
Lowell :: Jim Webb "Meets the Press"

http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do...

susan, the blog is off again, I am no. 6 now but should have been 7 or 8.

Proving yet again that those without a sense of humor shouldn't try to make jokes.

11.

linda b


I noticed too.

BARBARA BOXER supports the Biden-Gelb initiative

But do any Iraqis? 

15. It is no joke when your Sunni daughter walks through a Shiite neighborhood (or vice versa) for a loaf of bread and comes back dead and raped - an everyday fear in many parts of Iraq.

Happy Friday, BFA - 

Just another invite to call in to say hi to Jim Dean LIVE on Blue Jersey Radio Saturday morning 10:30-11AM. 

Call-in Number is: (646) 652-2773

Blue Jersey  is the political blog covering the progressive revolution in New Jersey, and as you can imagine there's plenty of crossover between DFA and Blue Jersey (including Jeff and me). And we would LOVE to get a call from you.

It is no joke when your Sunni daughter walks through a Shiite neighborhood (or vice versa) for a loaf of bread and comes back dead and raped - an everyday fear in many parts of Iraq.

That's right....and Clueless Joe helped bring it all about. But he didn't give Iraqis any say about that either.

I'll ask again.....Do any Iraqis support Biden's plan? Does he know or care? 

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-...

Someone here already mentioned this but this is a reminder that Bill Moyers is s/b good tonight --

TOUGH TALK ON IMPEACHMENT
BILL MOYERS JOURNAL explores the talk of impeachment with Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, who wrote the first article of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, and THE NATION's John Nichols, author of THE GENIUS OF IMPEACHMENT

18. From what I gather, the Iraqis are ambiguous towards our presence, they are disappointed with our inability to do anything right there, and don't like their country being a battleground between us and Al Qaeda - on the other hand they fear what may happen once we are gone if the civil war has no damper on escalation.

Biden-Gelb will aid families in relocating to security zones to live with their own kind. Biden-Gelb is in favor of forming regional and international peace-keeping forces, and diplomatic engagement, and allowing the UN to rebuild the country with over $50 billion in UN member pledge funds, once stability is attained.

Except for local tribal and community leaders, the people of former Iraq have no voice. The Maliki government was our idea, our installment. I cannot speak for the people of former Iraqi (and neither can you,) I can only imagine how difficult life must be for them with the provision of Biden-Gelb.

The "country of Iraq" is like the fallen empires of USSR and the Ottoman empire. They fell and got balkanized along ethnic borderlines. I expect that is what is occurring in the former Iraq. Keeping Iraq as one country was the British and Saddam's idea, and now it is the Bush idea, but may not be what the poeple there want. As time goes by, they will always have the opportunity to reunite, if that is what they want.

21. Brian Lamb was both strange and loaded for bear this morning -- I mean this in a good way -- I think he's wonderful. Anyway, the strange part: the 'phones' question was Did You Feel War Fatigue and he kept playing over and over the clip of Bush saying the nation was suffering from war fatigue. Folks called in and said stuff about the war, but few honed in on 'war fatigue' which may have been his point, ie, we're not suffering war fatigue. He is usually a week or two ahead of me in his thinking. The 'loaded for bear' moment was when a right wing nut 'neighbor' of mine in Jacksonville called in to lecture the guest about calling Bush Mr. Bush instead of Pres Bush -- Brian piped in that there was no rule anywhere that said you had to call Bush Pres Bush, then before the lady could say anything, he said 'I'm not going to sit here and argue with you' and moved on to the next caller. I was going YEa!!! in my living room. Then the PS is that it was the first time in MONTHS that I've seen the phone numbers on CSPAN referred to as 'support Bush' 'support Dems' 'support others' -- for months it has said 'support Repugs' 'support Dems' 'support others'.

Can you tell I'm a Washington Journal junkie? It's all the fault of this blog :~)

Friday trivia question on our NPR: How many variations are there in Brahms's Haydn Variations. (It's considered cheating to look it up). Back in a few with the answer :~)

Has anyone realized yet that the reason the Iraqis have failed to meet the benchmarks may be BECAUSE they WANT us to follow through on our threat to leave. Just a thought for the day....

Heard on NPR this morning that three more journalists have been killed in Iraq.  One was a reporter for the NY Times.  Two were shot in a crossfire between American troops and insurgents.

Some reporter managed to get to the general who commands the troops in northern in Iraq. He has 30,000 and says he could start cutting them in half in the beginning of next year.  He also said, contradicting the White House, that the people in his area who sympathize with Al Qaede are Iraqis, not foreign fighters.  Which was being reported by the Marines in Al Anbar province, as well.

Robert Gates now says that AlQaeda has reconstituted itself in North Africa.  I guess that means they've gone back to plan B--long term bases in Somalia on the horn of Africa, rather then in the middle of the Middle East.

Poor Bill Clinton.  If he'd just gone with Bush One's plan, he could have saved us all this trouble. 

Just one more quickie from the bloggie hoggie -- my vote for chutzpah of the year award goes to Annie Leibowitz the famous photographer who suggested to HMQ at the photo shoot that she remove her tiara. ROFLOL. I adore the Queen -- absolutely adore her -- if the Queen does it, it's by definition being done right. Sounds kinda monarchist I know but...

23. Answer: eight (I guessed 7).

19.

Of course they want us out. You don't need a rocket scientist to know that but there is a minority that feel they could be slaughtered shortly afterwards. This is precisely the problem Biden-Gelb addresses. It is an exit plan.

From your link, Sitka:

...The Program on International Policy Attitudes poll, which was conducted over the first three days of September for WorldPublicOpinion.org, found that support among Sunni Muslims for a withdrawal of all U.S.-led forces within six months dropped to 57 percent in September [2006] from 83 percent in January.

"There is a kind of softening of Sunni attitudes toward the U.S.," said Steven Kull, director of PIPA and editor of WorldPublicOpinion.org. "But you can't go so far as to say the majority of Sunnis don't want the U.S. out. They do. They're just not quite in the same hurry as they were before."

21.

FRED from OR
Fri, 07/13/07
2:42 pm

Thoughtful post - makes sense to me.

relocating to security zones to live with their own kind

I am speechless.  How can anyone on this blog talk about humans living with their own kind??????

There is only one species of humans--homo sapiens.  There used to be others, but it seems that homo sapiens has either absorbed them or killed them off.

It is the height of presumption for Americans to tell other people how to live and organize their communities, especially now that it's painfully obvious that our society is a total mess. 

There is also a propaganda war within Iraq of Sunnis and Shiites telling their respective people that they can win a civil war and run the country, once the USA is out of the way.

On the Sunni side you have the Arabs, including Saudi Arabia, with lots of money, and many former well-trained former Baathist military leaders.

On the Shiite side you have being the majority and the assumed support of the Iranians for arms and money.

It will be in the interest of USA, the world, the region, and the people of former Iraq, that we do all we can upon exiting to ensure things do not get worse afterwards.

These concerns of Biden-Gelb also makes an exit more feasible with the objections from moderate anti-occupation Republicans, the support of whom we need to leave ASAP

From what I gather, the Iraqis are ambiguous towards our presence,

I posted 5 polls which unambiguously show they want Americans out now if not sooner. 

Biden-Gelb will aid families in relocating to security zones to live with their own kind.

Under no circumstances should the US promote aparthied. It would undermine every effort to prevent it in other places.

international peace-keeping forces, and diplomatic engagement, and allowing the UN to rebuild the country with over $50 billion in UN member pledge funds, once stability is attained.

That kind of pipe dream was blown up back in 2003 along with the UN's HQ in Iraq. No country's leaders (except ours) are mad enough to send troops or money into Iraq for any reason.

I cannot speak for the people of former Iraqi (and neither can you,) 

Only Joe Biden can? 

I expect that is what is occurring in the former Iraq.

You obviously don't know much about it. We should replace Bush's and Cheney's wing and a prayer with Biden's and yours? No thanks. 

Monica Smith
Fri, 07/13/07
3:02 pm

Makes me wonder too. Apparently, there are some who still believe in apartheid and segregation forced upon another. US has neither the right nor the international support to supervise this kind of segregation. Not to mention that it hasn't worked well in Ireland, Palestine, South Africa etc. Biden doesn't get it.

30.

Monica Smith
Fri, 07/13/07
3:02 pm

There is only one species of humans--homo sapiens.

==========

You cannot impose liberal democratic ideals upon people increasingly becoming more ethnic and religious every day. It is an elitist argument. You just want them to live and let live.

24.

Yes.

But the Bush Two strategy in Iraq is geared towards failure.  Like torture.  The theory is that if enough stress is applied, the victim will eventually give up what is wanted.  What's wanted from the captives is information.  What's wanted from the Iraqis is an invitation to stay on indefinitely.

In Bush Two world success is predicated on someone else's failure.  It's like that Whole Foods guy who's been bad-mouthing his competition so they'd be willing to be acquired--i.e. gobbled up and put out of business. 

31.

Sitka
Fri, 07/13/07
3:03 pm

Under no circumstances should the US promote aparthied

===========

Apartheid involves domination and exploitation.

Apartheid is closer to what we have now, in a sense, with one group, Shiites, dominating another, the Sunni.

We need to ensure ethnic groups don't get slaughtered en masse as a result of our leaving, and that each has their own piece of land and oil wealth.

New thread

29.

Thanks, your understanding has been noted.

34.

It would please me tremendously not to be addressed in person and even more not to have goals and interest ascribed to me. 

Biden-Gelb will aid families in relocating to security zones to live with their own kind.

a·part·heid

1. A policy or practice of separating or segregating groups.
2. The condition of being separated from others; segregation.

39. In English, rhetorically we use "you" in the collective sense, to take it personally is an aberration.

new thread

http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/21506...

24.

Indy Steve
Fri, 07/13/07
2:50 pm

Reply to this
Has anyone realized yet that the reason the Iraqis have failed to meet the benchmarks may be BECAUSE they WANT us to follow through on our threat to leave. Just a thought for the day....

==============

Notwithstanding polls, using the term "the Iraqis" groups Sunnis and Shiites into one people, which they are not. That's why there is a civil war.

If you believe the Shiite government that Bush installed, with 20% of the vote ((even without Sunnis voting,) represents "the Iraqi people" you miss the mark again.

No one here believes in Bush's Iraqi government. And apparently almost no one believes in Biden's scheme either. Why replace one clueless plan with another when it involves wasting more American blood and treasure than simply heeding the wisdom of the people in Iraqi and America -- US troops out of Iraq immediately. Anything else is irresponsible.

37.

Sitka
Fri, 07/13/07
3:14 pm

a·part·heid

A policy or practice of separating or segregating groups.
The condition of being separated from others; segregation.

==============

Ignorant play on semantics.

According to that definition, what we did in Bosnia is apartheid. And France and Italy practice apartheid for not being one country.

Apartheid as we know it, is the subjugation of one group by another.

But then again, Sitka, confusing the issues is your stock and trade, you think that's smart politics.

Live Blogging Joe Biden in Des Moines

11:46 - Biden says he doesn't believe there are more than a dozen Senators who actually believe the administration line on Iraq; the question is when they will break. The purpose of keeping the pressure on with repeated votes on withdrawal is not to change the President's mind - impossible to do, Biden says - but to continue to squeeze Republicans to vote for redeployment or to override a veto sooner, rather than later. The longer this takes, the harder it will be to get out of Iraq without leaving chaos behind in Iraq

http://ipol-2008.blogspot.com/2007/07/li...

11:50 - Biden says it is impossible for the Iraq government to govern from the center, each of the three main groups should be given semi-autonomy, and participate in a limited central government. Says that unless this happens the Iraq civil war will spread across the region. Says he won't support keeping a single American soldier in Iraq to keep a civil war spreading.

http://ipol-2008.blogspot.com/2007/07/li...

Ignorant play on semantics.

It's called a def·i·ni·tion 

1. A statement conveying fundamental character.
2. A statement of the meaning of a word, phrase, or term, as in a dictionary entry.
3. The act or process of stating a precise meaning or significance; formulation of a meaning.
4. The act of making clear and distinct:

Biden says....

Selling Biden around here is like selling holy water at an Athiest convention. 

47. It is called deceptive spinning

patterning the discussion to suite your objective, regardless of the truth