Big plot uncovered in New York to blow up the world!!!! Time for new logo's on cable news, Bush to mention al Qaeda about fifty times, fear to strike the hearts of all!!!
I'm gonna predict right now that when the details are known, these were a bunch of losers with a lot of beer talk, few resources and weren't even close to really doing anything.
This is part of next week's news:
FBI officials said a new report, due to be released Monday, will show an increase of about 1.3 percent in violent crimes, including a 6 percent hike in robberies and a lesser increase in homicides. Competing explanations include escalating gang violence and an increase in the juvenile population. Much of the new crime was focused in urban areas; the Post off-leads with news that the Washington D.C. violent-crime rates spiked by nearly 9 percent last year.It's quite simple. Overlay crime rates with real wage growth and employment and you'll find a distinct correlation.
U.S. officials tell ABC News that the troop levels in Iraq cannot be maintained at the present level, either politically or practically, with the military stretched so thin.Rolling Stones:
But that does not imply an immediate drawdown. Officials tell ABC's Martha Raddatz the senior commanders in Iraq -- Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno and Gen. David Petraeus -- want the surge to continue until at least December, and expect to report enough progress by September to justify the extension.
The drawdown would begin in February 2008, although each of the two generals supports a slightly different plan.
Plan one, which officials say is being pushed by Odierno, calls for a reduction in troops from roughly 150,000 today to 100,000 by December of 2008.
Petraeus champions a slightly different approach that would be to cut the troops down to roughly 130,000 by the end of 2008, with further reductions the following year.
You better stop, look aroundUpdate: From Firedoglake:
Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes, here it comes
Here comes your nine-teenth nervous breakdown.
Here comes your nine-teenth nervous breakdown
Here comes your nine-teenth nervous breakdown
Iraq's president [Talabani] tells ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" this Sunday that Iraqi forces can take over, but not any time soon. When asked when the Iraqi army will be ready to defend its country, Jalal Talabani said, "I think the end of the next year." But officials have serious doubts about that statement.Of course Talabani has been saying this exact same estimate for years.
2 years ago, Talabani said:A few months ago we abandoned trying to train Iraqi's, moving to the escalation to pacify Baghdad. Now we're back to training Iraqi's again.
[T]wo years should be enough time for Iraqi forces to rebuild and secure control of the country as well as take over the job currently being performed by some 140,000 U.S. troops.
You better stop, look around
Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes, here it comes
Here comes your nine-teenth nervous breakdown.
Here comes your nine-teenth nervous breakdown
Here comes your nine-teenth nervous breakdown
.... about Siegelman, the girls will take care of him."
That's what a political operative told the governor of Alabama who had just unseated Siegelman in a run for the governorship during a highly contested close election. The "girls" refers to the operatives wife and another U.S. Federal prosecutor.
Why was he so confident that "the girls" would take care of Siegelman?
At the moment, the state's former Democratic governor, Don Siegelman, stands convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges and faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Siegelman has long claimed that his prosecution was driven by politically motivated, Republican-appointed U.S. attorneys.And just what did the girls dig up on Siegelman?
Now Karl Rove, the President's top political strategist, has been implicated in the controversy. A longtime Republican lawyer in Alabama swears she heard a top G.O.P. operative in the state say that Rove "had spoken with the Department of Justice" about "pursuing" Siegelman, with help from two of Alabama's U.S. attorneys.
Siegelman was convicted of appointing Scrushy [also indicted] to a hospital regulatory board in exchange for a $500,000 contribution to a campaign for a state lottery to fund education. Defense lawyers have argued that Siegelman drew no personal financial benefit from Scrushy's donation to the lottery campaign, and they note that Scrushy had served on the hospital regulatory board under three previous governors, before Siegelman reappointed him. The reappointment, they have argued, offered little of value to Scrushy except more work.Everything. Absolutely everything that Karl Rove touches turns to shit. Everything.
President Bush met with a woman who's son was killed in Iraq. When she asked what the mission was in Iraq (and he couldn't answer), she said she was now on a mission to bring the troops home.
Later, Bush gave her a Presidential coin and said:
'Don't go sell it on eBay'.
Republican Wayne Allard will never be accused of being media savy:
According to Colorado Confidential, Sen. Wayne Allard's (R-CO) press office made a rather significant mistake in a press release sent out to commend first responders.Methinks a staffer is now out looking for a job.
The problem was with the third paragraph:
"First responders in Colorado have recently provided critical services in the face of blizzards and tornados," added Allard. "Since I don’t think first responders have really done anything significant in comparison to their counterparts who have dealt with real natural disasters, I have no idea what else to say here…"
The press release was corrected and resent 19 minutes later.
TEHRAN, May 31 (Reuters) - Rebels killed in clashes with Iranian forces this week had recently infiltrated border areas of the Islamic Republic carrying U.S.-made arms, an Iranian commander was quoted as saying on Thursday.I'm sure it's just an Iranian propoganda routine. Bush would never do something like this.
Ten rebels and seven Iranian border guards were killed in clashes in a northwestern area close to Turkey, according to Iranian media reports on Wednesday and Thursday.
"The weapons ... included M16 weapons which are being provided through channels linked to forces present in the region," General Rastegar-Panah, identified only with his last name, told state radio.
The report referred to "American-made weaponry and arms".
Remember how I posted awhile back about all the ministers of Iraq who are going to be out of Iraq at the same time? Add this to the mix:
Iraqi PM al-Maliki told Lara Logan of CBS Evening News in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that he has a real fear of a coup by the Iraqi army.It certainly wouldn't be a shock.
Al-Maliki said that some of the officer corps have been creating problems and even violating the security of military operations. He stated, "I'm not afraid, but I have to watch the army, because those still loyal to the previous regime may start planning coups. Those people don't believe in democracy, and for that reason we are monitoring the status of the army very closely."
Charlie Pierce on Fred "cornpon" Thompson. After noting his qualifications for government (hint: zip):
Therefore, all of the earnest speculation about his manly-man appeal to the base is based on how much utter bulls**t the man can sling between now and the first primary. He's a performance piece, nothing more. There isn't an ounce of authenticity to him that isn't storebought. He actually is the complete fake that the Cool Kids pretended Al Gore was in 2000. He's even from Tennessee and, it is said, he once dated cute li'l Maggie Carlson, the chipmunk-cheeked lightweight in the moonman glasses who once famously thought Gore was talkin' too smart for the likes of her vaporous self.I would personally be willing to purchase, for viewing, a copy of the DVD "A Face in the Crowd" for every Washington reporter and pundit. They need to see it, savior it, and maybe even learn something.
Barry explains why GDP (I posted about it previously) is worse than the headline number (those headlines again):
Yesterday we learned that in Q1 2007, the economy expanded at the near zero growth pace of 0.15%. That's practically flatlined. This was the worst reading since a 0.2% increase in Q4 of 2002.Add in inflation, and the GDP number shows we're already in a recession.
What's that, you ask? In the media, GDP was reported at 0.6% you say? Um, no -- that's the annualized rate -- take Q1 GDP and go mulitple it 4X and THAT's how you get to a still pitiful 0.6%.
I'm always suspicious of headlines. Always.
When the news was trumpeting the idiocy and selfishness of the guy with tuberculosis, I was immediately on guard and wondering about the rest of the story. Well, it turns out that this guy is no ignorant dolt, but rather an personal injury attorney. And now this:
In an interview with ABC News, Speaker asked for forgiveness for exposing airline passengers, but says he has a tape recording of a meeting with health officials where they allegedly told him it was all right for him to travel.Hmmm. Ok. So if they told him he could travel, that kinda let's him off the hook for that decision. Apparently health officials then contacted him in Europe and told him to stay there. He didn't want to get stuck in Europe (he will have to be hospitalized for months), so he then came home. While not the smartest move in the world, it's certainly understandable to not want to be stuck that far from home. And does anyone really doubt that the current administration wouldn't have labeled him a terrorist or something, refusing him entry? In fact, he was flagged to not return, but the system failed to stop him. Digby made the point that his behavior shows American exceptionalism in avoiding health care in Europe. I'm not sure I agree with that, wondering if he just didn't want to get stuck. Why didn't CDC officials, having allowed him to travel, pay for an air ambulance to fly him home and to Denver for treatment? Afterall, they told him he could go.
The papers are all tut-tutting this story today about Bush starting a "new" initiative on global warming:
In his announcement, Bush said he wants to hold talks between the world's top 10 to 15 polluters (USAT has a handy chart that lists who they are) to set up what his chief environmental adviser calls "aspirational goals" by the end of 2008. Bush said he would present his proposal at next week's G8 meeting, where it was widely expected that his administration would come under fire for its failure to act on global warming.This confuses me. And anytime I'm confused by Bush, I'm suspicious. Besides, didn't we already have an international initiative on global warming called Kyoto? Why reinvent yet another wheel?
You know how I'm always railing-away about inflation. Here's a tangible measure:
Remember. Gold is a repository of value, i.e. it takes the same amount of gold to buy a car today as it took 20 years ago. But if you want to use dollars to buy a car, go get yourself a wheel barrow.
Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated "I am the president!" He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of "our country's destiny."
source
We really do have a mad man at the helm. Are we really, really stuck with him until January 2009? ThinkProgress has more.
I saw Gwen Ifill interview Al Gore last night and totally agree with Digby's assessment.
Isn't it funny to continually watch interviewers demonstrate, right on the spot, exactly what Gore is saying in his book?
This volume moves beyond its criticisms of the Bush administration to diagnose the ailing condition of America as a participatory democracy — low voter turnout, rampant voter cynicism, an often ill-informed electorate, political campaigns dominated by 30-second television ads, and an increasingly conglomerate-controlled media landscapeFunny that.
Here's a list of hearings scheduled by Jerod Nadler (D-NY):–
The National Security Agency’s wiretapping program and proposed expansions;That's a good start. But wake me when there are subpoena, impeachments, concept of Congress or something tangible.
– The erosion of Habeas Corpus through the Military Commissions Act;
– The sanctioning of torture through the Military Commissions Act and other government policies;
– The practice of “extraordinary rendition,” or government sponsored kidnapping;
– PATRIOT Act threats to privacy rights, including the FBI’s abuses of the National Security Letter authority and intrusions into Americans’ “Freedom to Read”;
– Government surveillance of First Amendment-protected activities; and
– The gutting of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights and Voting Rights Divisions.
The CIA is trying to block the publication of Valerie Plame's memoir:
Valerie Wilson, the former Central Intelligence Agency operative at the heart of an investigation that reached into the White House, sued the agency in federal court in New York today over its refusal to allow her to publish a memoir that would discuss how long she worked for it.Here's the info they have their panties twisted about:
Although that information is set out in an unclassified letter to Ms. Wilson that has been published in the Congressional Record, the C.I.A. insists that her dates of service remain classified and may not be mentioned in “Fair Game,” the memoir Ms. Wilson hopes to publish in October.
The letter was entered into the Congressional Record by Representative Jay Inslee, Democrat of Washington, in January 2007. It said that Ms. Wilson had worked for the government since November 9, 1985, for a total of “20 years, 7 days,” including “six years, one month and 29 days of overseas service.”Let's review. Top government officials "out" her as an undercover CIA agent. But now the CIA won't let her publish a book because of information that is in the public domain already (including now, the NY Times)?
