Dean and the Democratic Party are first

Critical malcontents of our Party are last

The hell do you know what I do during the ~22 hours a say that I'm away from this blog?

I shall continue to post what I consider relevant and point out the obvious deficiencies in the conduct of Democratic legislators.

That might "improve things".

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

Simple instinct and common sense.  Anyone that harbors the endless critical ignorance that you do has never experienced how complex and difficult poitics can be.

The deficiency is in your knowledge and experience and understanding.  You cut and paste more than form opinions of your own.  The only thing you improve here is your bloated ego.  I bet you love it when the students kiss your butt, professor.

Huron John
Thu, 08/23/07
8:55 pm

=========

I never liked back-seat drivers that never even had a driver's license.

This Week on NOW: Soldiers Going AWOL

This week, we talk to two U.S. soldiers who went AWOL during the War in Iraq. They eventually left the Army, but took very different paths. NOW shows one man turning himself in, and captures the moment when another applies for refugee status in Canada, becoming one of the more than 20,000 service members who have deserted the Army since the war began.

http://www.pbs.org/now/

This war must end but it matters profoundly how we end it. As we leave, we must do everything we can not to leave behind chaos that undermines American security for a generation. That requires a lasting political settlement. Unfortunately, like President Bush, some of my Democratic colleagues are clinging to a fatally flawed premise that Iraq can be governed from the center by a strong national government that secures the support of the Iraqi people. President Bush is surging forces to buy more time for the central government to succeed. It cannot. Some of my colleagues, like Sen. Clinton, believe that replacing Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and pressuring the central government will force it to get its act together. They, too, are wrong. Maliki is a problem, but this fixation on a strong central government is the problem with our policy. There is no trust within the central government, no trust of the government by the people, no capacity by the Iraqi government to deliver security or services and no prospect it will build that trust and capacity any time soon. Replacing Maliki won’t change that fact. Absent an occupation we cannot sustain or a dictator we cannot want, Iraq will not be governed from the center.

Some of my other democratic colleagues, including Senators Obama and Dodd and Governor Richardson, seem to be coming around to that reality. Each has spoken in positive terms about my plan to end the war in Iraq by separating the warring factions and helping Iraqis build a decentralized, federal system that gives its major groups control over the fabric of their daily lives, as we did in Bosnia. But they say they are reluctant to “impose” a political settlement on the Iraqis. In fact, my plan “imposes” nothing on the Iraqis; rather, it would implement what is already in their constitution and laws. The Iraqi constitution establishes a decentralized, federal system in Iraq, with extensive powers for the regions and limited powers for the central government. The Iraqi parliament passed legislation, which takes effect early next year, to implement those provisions of the constitution. If my opponents would read the constitution and Iraq’s laws, their concern about fully backing my plan would vanish. I call on them to do so, and to support the Biden-Boxer-Brownback legislation, which would force the Bush Administration to change policy and support the Iraqi Constitution.

Fed up with the Florida Democrats.    They actually, according to a Kos post tonight by them, want this to end up in court.  Uh, in case you don't get it that would be the AG's office handling it.  They are being very argumentative. 

More here about how they are threatening Dean and the DNC with investigation.   I am so tired of this snotty attitude from them.

Florida Democrats threaten Dean and the DNC with a voting rights probe.  More info than earlier.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1453

Putin  Calls-Out PNAC

http://crooksandliars.com/

scroll

Yes, taking over the world by force should be reserved for comicbook VILLIANS. 

Though, Putin's a hypocrit, cuz he's no champion of Democracy either.

Just sayin' cuz this site IS called DEMOCRACY for AMERICA. 

Cuba, please take Alabama, and Mississippi, and maybe even Nebraska, too.

and Ohio.

6. Yep, no doubt Clinton's folks behind that.



Time for a COOL change,
Gore
2008



nite

Oh, yeah, Idaho and Wyoming, too.

The poster from the FDP has the nerve to say if we don't investigate Dean, and he sanctions us...the Republicans will do it and that would look funny. 

Here, read it for yourselves.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/23/22449/0609

You might get dizzy from the spin.

Good work floridagal. I added a comment. Thank you.

6. Yep, no doubt Clinton's folks behind that.

I wouldn't put it past them, but it could just be locals tired of IA and NH robbing them of their equal say. While I sympathize with Dean for having to enforce a rule he didn't make and may not agree with, I happen to think the status quo sucks and is easily manipulated by the Clinton machine.

Florida Democrats. They actually, according to a Kos post tonight by them, want this to end up in court.

That would save Dean from having to play the heavy. 

Linda, thanks for the comment. 

 What makes Florida, or Ohio for that matter, think that after f*cking Democracy for the rest of America, that they have any rights what-so-ever???

 Down with Utah, too. At least the Utah government.

I like Mormons. I know and work with many of them. They are not a cult.  They, at least the urban mormon individuals that I know, are much more enlightened than the mouth-breathing, snake-handling, brainwashed, self-loathing, eigth-grade-educated, shame-based remnance of racist, demonic, slavery-promoting, money-grubbing, Southern,-elitiist, coachroaches, that are so-called, evangelical  "christians."

That said, Romn*y is a sociopathic, flip-flipping, Repugnicon, Stepford canididate.

Mormons, wake up!  You're better than M*tt Romn*y 

I don't like Florida much right now at all.    Not happy at all.  

I'm exhausted by my own college-educated, recovering-country-yankee-northern-rural- whitetrash rant.

G'nite, Good Patriots.

Printable version

US officials said the Talon programme would end on 17 September because the amount and quality of information gathered had declined.

A Pentagon review found that it had included reports on peaceful protesters and anti-war demonstrations which should have been deleted.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which had criticised the database, welcomed the decision to abandon it.

"There should be no place in a free democratic society for the military to be accumulating secret data on peaceful demonstrators," ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said.

The Talon reporting system was run by a little-known Pentagon agency called the Counter-Intelligence Field Activity (Cifa), whose size and budget are classified.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We will likely lose a lurker or two, but since they now have the Congessionally approved total spying on Americans program at work they are likely dropping this one because the files are duplicates. 

Good morning, everybody

Getting a bit of heat here.  I think I'll do some yard work.  Raspberry canes really need to be trimmed.   

Wonder how many more times Talon will be shut down.

Looking for needles in haystacks that haven't yet been built is not just a waste of time, but must be very boring.

What are the diminishing returns of nothing?  Now, there's a conundrum.  LOL 

Pretty lean thread with the tone set by posts 1-5.

Sticks and stones.............................

Huron John

Please ignore and continue your valuable contributions to the dialogue.

IRAN'S NEXT WITH COMPLICIT MEDIA

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/1251

American journalists put their jobs at grave risk if they expose things such as fraudulent wars.

One former colleague, operations officer-par-excellence Robert Baer, now reports (in this week's Time) that, according to his sources, the Bush/Cheney administration is winding up for a strike on Iran; that the Administration's plan to put Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorism list points in the direction of such a strike; and that the delusional "neo-conservative" thinking that still guides White House policy concludes that such an attack would lead to the fall of the clerics and the rise of a more friendly Iran.

Hold on, it gets even worse: Baer's sources tell him that administration officials are thinking "as long as we have bombers and missiles in the air, we will hit Iran's nuclear facilities."

In his memo to the president, Rumsfeld suggested that U.S. generals "withdraw U.S. forces from vulnerable positions-cities, patrolling, etc.," and move troops to Kuwait to serve as a Quick Reaction Force. Bush, of course, chose to do just the opposite.

Our domesticated press has not yet been able to put two and two together on this story, so it has been left to investigative reporters such as Robert Parry to do so. In his Aug. 17 essay, "Rumsfeld's Mysterious Resignation," Parry closes with this:

"The touchy secret about Rumsfeld's departure seems to have been that Bush didn't want the American people to know that one of the chief Iraq War architects had turned against the idea of an open-ended military commitment -- and that Bush had found himself with no choice but to oust Rumsfeld for his loss of faith in the neoconservative cause."

Granted, it is speculative that similar factors, this time with respect to war planning for Iran, were at work in the decisions on the departure of Rove and Snow. Someone ought to ask them.

Cheerleading in the Domesticated Media

Yes, it is happening again.

The lead editorial in yesterday's Washington Post regurgitates the allegations that Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is "supplying the weapons that are killing a growing number of American soldiers in Iraq"; that it is "waging war against the United States and trying to kill as many American soldiers as possible." Designating Iran a "specially designated global terrorist" organization, says the Post, "seems to be the least the United States should be doing, giving the soaring number of Iranian-sponsored bomb attacks in Iraq."

From the K Street lobbyist corridor to the major gay and lesbian organizations to the city's kingpin consultants and fundraisers to the big feminist groups, Hillary Clinton has acquired a near-lock on the Democratic establishment in the nation's capital.

The level of support here for the junior New York Senator approaches what an incumbent president seeking re-election might expect.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/08/23/hillary-locks-up-the-back_n_61603.html

SCARY

Good thing the nations farmers are a productive bunch because no one will starve..

Damage from weather this year nationwide might have been topped by 1988 but none since.

Since the backlog of aid begins with Katrina and the need is still there, I doubt Congress can do much, but once a majority of Congressional Districts are involved comprehensive legislation is possible.

two weeks shorter war would do it, money wise

paygo the war by rescinding the top rate tax cut and see how long it lasts

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20070823/bs_ibd_ibd/2007823issues01

Sen. Obama Vs. Gen. Petraeus

Ibd

Thu Aug 23, 7:00 PM ET

Politics Of War: Barack Obama tells the VFW there's no military solution in Iraq while Gen. David Petraeus proves him wrong. Petraeus is scheduled to report to Congress on Sept. 15. We'd prefer Sept. 11.

...

like other Democrats, he wants us to declare victory and leave because Iraq is not yet an Athenian democracy or Switzerland.

Obama, whose foreign policy includes talking to our enemies while invading our allies, told the assembled veterans, "All our top military commanders recognize that there is no military solution in Iraq."

Maybe Wesley Clark believes that. But Petraeus, our surgin' general, knows that defeating al-Qaida in Iraq, not talking to Iran and Syria, as Obama prefers, is the prerequisite of a free, secure and independent Iraqi democracy.

What Obama and his colleagues fail to note is that the surge only recently started.

...

So the surge is only now at full strength. Yet on April 19, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid insisted that "this war is lost, and the surge is not accomplishing anything."

...

This success, acknowledged even by Sen. Hillary Clinton, has caused Democrats like Obama to lapse into incoherence: We are winning, but we can't win; the surge is working, but Iraq is the biggest foreign policy mistake we've ever made.

No, that dubious distinction, as President Bush has pointed out, was when another Democratic Congress, the Watergate babies of 1974, cut off aid to South Vietnam, spawning the communist killing fields in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Obama also argued that "no military surge can succeed without political reconciliation and a surge of diplomacy in Iraq and the region. Iraq's leaders are not reconciling. They are not achieving political benchmarks."

We're thankful the French didn't follow Obama's philosophy before helping us win our independence from King George. Our desire for independence was not unanimous. Many wanted to stay part of the British empire.

Our squabbling continued long after independence was won. The Articles of Confederation failed, and we squabbled until we formed our current government under our current Constitution, which we're squabbling about to this day.

Political reconciliation? Like in the current Congress?

More is at stake here than Iraqi democracy. As the president said, cutting off Iraq as the Democrats cut off South Vietnam, and like Bill Clinton's shameful withdrawal from Somalia, would lead not to peace but to another 9/11.

Barack Obama is an inspiring speaker. But the only ones he's inspiring are our enemies.

He prefers the Neville Chamberlain approach. We prefer that used by generals such as Petraeus and Patton.

Ibd

is short for Investors Business Daily

(looks like the writers at Ibd want to keep the Iraqi occupation by U.S. forces going on, and going on, and on, ....)

http://www.investors.com/

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A quick thought on Gods Warriors...........after last nites episode, it proves that Ive been right along..........there are just as many religious fanatics on this side of the ocean as the other.......

32.  DUH

 Had a new thought--or maybe it's a conclusion.

You have to use authority to generate autonomy.

I'm thinking mainly of parents here and my observation that when children are given too many choices too early, it makes them insecure about what they should be doing.  On the other hand, when they are told what to do and don't like the results, then they decide on their own to try something else.  Sort of like using a magnet to generate electricity. 

 Some here appear to have the"You must be a dem to be here"attitude. Well ,sorry, but you can  Send Zell Miller some of your lemming attitude and dollars. Did you love Leiberman until he left your group? Did any dems vote for the war, or to increase funding for the war, or accept money from pharma, etc. Any recent votes to increase spying by dems? Is the reason Dems have been said to have no backbone because they stay together as a unit to keep power? I believe in "power to the people", not the party. Try to get a backbone, or you will lose . Oh and for those that wonder why no bashing of the r team, one word to cover them,terrorists.............. Impeach. Bye.(for now)

That clip from an Edwards event last winter is a keeper.

Someone put it up on Bluehampshire as part of a discussion of the difference between seeing Edwards on TV and seeing him in person.  

If you'll remember, I made the point about Dodd that in his case there's no difference.  Whether that's a plus or a minus, I don't know.

Edward's interaction with the voters is probably attractive to Democrats, but I don't know how it would go across with Republicans.  Attendees at Bush events have not fared too well.  The Florida woman with three jobs is probably still embarrassed.  Of course, that's probably the point--to discourage unscripted interactions. 

9.

Progressive Avenger
Fri, 08/24/07
1:30 am

Though, Putin's a hypocrit, cuz he's no champion of Democracy either.

Just sayin' cuz this site IS called DEMOCRACY for AMERICA.
-----------

As any other "democratically" elected ruler, Putin, of course, a hypocrite...., but NOWHERE NEAR to Bush&Co. administration, imo.
Besides, if we allow ourselves to criticize Putin's (or anyone else's) style of democracy we must allow anyone to criticize our own style too.

His speech you are referring is the old news. It was delivered in Germany, on February 10, 2007:

http://www.securityconference.de/konfere...

I would suggest reading it in its originality, not from second hand interpretation... and make conclusion for yourself how much truth have said there.

Also, if we are to deliver "DEMOCRACY for AMERICA" only, then...what rights do we have to try to keep our World leadership in building new and true democracy?