Well This Sucks

My Way News - GOP Gains Ground in Battle for Congress:

The AP-Ipsos poll asked Americans if the election for the House were held today, would they vote for the Democratic or Republican candidate in their district.

Democrats had a 14-point edge among likely voters, 53 percent to 39 percent. That's narrower than last month but still a wide gap. Since August, the GOP has attracted more married men, young people and those who live in the Northeast.

Republicans also have drawn even on the question of who would best protect the country, with 43 percent of likely voters siding with Democrats and 41 percent choosing Republicans, numbers within the poll's margin of error.

Sentiment tilted more toward Democrats in August but Republicans attracted more men, young people, minorities, and people from the Northeast and Midwest.

It ain't over 'til it's over, of course, and there's still time for the Dems to regain momentum. Granted, it's an uphill battle for them since they don't have the general media backing them up or most of big business funding them, but it's the Dems' to lose. Let's hope they can come back swinging through next month (or that the wingnuts fuck up again, probably a more likely scenario).

And Another 10,000 Jobs Dissolve

My Way News - Ford Slashes 10,000 More Jobs, 2 Plants

This is in addition to the 60,000 all ready scheduled to be cut! And again, we're talking well-paying jobs. Ford isn't Walmart!

NYT Agrees With Coz -- Again

Stampeding Congress - New York Times:

The idea that the nation’s chief executive is pressing so hard to undermine basic standards of justice is shocking. And any argument that these extreme methods would be used only against the most dangerous of international terrorists has been destroyed by the handling of hundreds of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, many of whom appear to have been scooped up in Afghanistan years ago with little attempt to verify any connection to terrorism, and now are in danger of lingering behind bars forever without a day in court.

To lend his lobbying an utterly false sense of urgency, President Bush announced last week that he had taken 14 dangerous terrorists from the secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons where he had been holding them for years and sent them to Guantánamo to stand trial. But none of the prisoners is going anywhere, and the current high-pressure timetable is related only to the election calendar.

Ney Pleads Guilty!

Ohio Congressman Is Said to Agree to Plead Guilty - New York Times:
"WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 — Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio, has agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges related to his dealings with the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff, lawyers and others with knowledge of the investigation said Thursday."

Who's next?

Pataki Stacks The Deck With "Midnight" Appointments

Appointments by Pataki Leave a Lasting Stamp - New York Times

Don't You Love It?

An Unexpected Collision Over Detainees - New York Times:
"Instead of drawing contrasts with Democrats, the president’s call for creating military tribunals to try terror suspects — a key substantive and political component of his fall agenda — has erupted into a remarkably intense clash pitting some of the best-known warriors in the Republican Party against Mr. Bush and the Congressional leadership."

Same Old Same Old

U.N. Inspectors Dispute Iran Report By House Panel - washingtonpost.com:
"U.N. inspectors investigating Iran's nuclear program angrily complained to the Bush administration and to a Republican congressman yesterday about a recent House committee report on Iran's capabilities, calling parts of the document 'outrageous and dishonest' and offering evidence to refute its central claims."

First, BushCo warns Intelligence that they're not being aggressive enough in their reporting on Iran. Then this alarmist report comes out of Congress, halving the time to Iran's first nuke. Now the U.N. pipes up that it's all a crock of horse manure. It's 2001 all over again!

Positively Negative

On Another Grim Day, Bodies Lie Everywhere in Baghdad - New York Times:
"BAGHDAD, Sept. 13 — Nearly 90 Iraqis were killed or found dead here on Tuesday and Wednesday, an Interior Ministry official said, making for a particularly grim day even amid the intense sectarian violence."

It's just not getting better, is it? GET OUT!

It Ain't Over Yet

Novak Accuses Plame Source Of Distortion - washingtonpost.com:

Columnist Robert D. Novak, who first revealed Valerie Plame's employment by the CIA and touched off a lengthy federal leak investigation, is accusing his primary source of misrepresenting their conversation to make the source's role in the disclosure seem more casual than it was.

In an unusual column that appears today, Novak says his initial source, former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage, was more sure of Plame's ties to the CIA than the source has indicated. Novak adds that Armitage linked her directly to her husband's CIA-sponsored trip to Niger and suggested the disclosure would be a good item for Novak's column.

Okay, Fitz. Let's see the magic....

Keith Olbermann Hits A Homerun

YouTube - Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on Bush 9/11/06



Now if only someone like Keith would run for president...!

Oh! Please!

Bush says U.S. seeing religious reawakening | Top News | Reuters.comActually, he may have something here. I could see some similarities with Spain during the inquisition.... Probably not what he was going for.

Quick! Make It Legal Before They Arrest Us!

Senate panel approves Bush-backed spying bill | Top News | Reuters.com:
"On a party-line vote of 10-8, the panel approved the bill and sent it to the full Senate for an uncertain fate in advance of the hotly contested November 7 congressional elections."

This bill only underlines the fact that the administration and its allies in Congress have been breaking the law and should be brought to justice. Kill this bill and the one in the house so the lawbreakers can be punished and justice be done for the American people!

Getting Better All The Time

ABC News: New Flares for GOP in 2006 Election Views:

Aug. 7, 2006 — There are new warning flares for Republicans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll: Fifty-three percent of Americans call themselves 'anti-incumbent,' and the fewest since 1994 approve of their own representative's performance in Washington.

Anti-incumbency is as high now as it was in the summer of 1994, before the last election in which control of Congress changed hands. And it peaks not just among Democrats and liberals but among traditional swing voters as well. Sixty-one percent of Independents, for example, say they're anti-incumbent this year.

The danger for Republicans is underscored by their deficit in voter preference. Fifty-two percent of registered voters say if the election were held today they'd support the Democrat in their congressional district, 39 percent the Republican — a number that has held steady for nine months running. Among anti-incumbent voters, nearly two-thirds support Democrats for the House.

When you factor in the bias toward the right and big business that has lately infected the general media, especially the mouse, this is fantastic news!

Agreed!

President Bush’s Reality - New York Times:

Iraq had nothing to do with the war on terror until the Bush administration decided to invade it. The president now admits that Saddam Hussein was not responsible for 9/11 (although he claimed last night that the invasion was necessary because Iraq posed a “risk”). But he has failed to offer the country a new, realistic reason for being there.

Establishing democracy at the heart of the Middle East no longer qualifies, desirable as that would be. Where Mr. Bush sees an infant secular Iraqi government, most of the world sees a collection of ethnic and religious factional leaders, armed with private militias, presiding over growing strife between Shiites and Sunnis. Warning that American withdrawal would “embolden” the enemy is far from an argument as long as there is constant evidence that American presence is creating a fearful backlash throughout the Muslim world that empowers the fanatics far more than it frightens them.

Fending off the chaos that would almost certainly come with civil war would be a reason to stay the course, although it does not inspire the full-throated rhetoric about freedom that Mr. Bush offered last night. But the nation needs to hear a workable plan to stabilize a fractured, disintegrating country and end the violence. If such a strategy exists, it seems unlikely that Mr. Bush could see it through the filter of his fantasies.

Fantasy is too gentle a term. Delusion would be more appropriate. But let's stay focused on the 400 pound gorilla: the price of oil (though going down prior to the elections, as usual) has risen dramatically since the invasion of Iraq. BushCo really has accomplished its mission. It's just not what most of us thought it was.

Well, Well

In Unpredictable District, Some Say Bush Is Politicizing Terrorism - New York Times:
“I do have a bit of mistrust,” said Mr. McBride, who said that he twice voted for Mr. Bush but that he is now disappointed — a sentiment he said is shared by many in his Bible study group. “The whole thing about W.M.D. and that Iraq is somehow tied to 9/11, I just don’t believe it.”

Things are looking up, even in the Bible Belt. They are finally waking up to the emperor's new clothes being a might breezy. Could Rover's latest strategy be backfiring? Stay tuned.

Strange Bedfellows?

Iraqi Leader Asks Iran for Help With Security - New York Times:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 12 — In his first state visit to Iran, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki today discussed the security situation in Iraq with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and asked for Mr. Ahmadinejad’s support in quelling the violence that threatens to fracture this country.

“We had a good discussion with Mr. Ahmadinejad,” Mr. Maliki said at a news conference in Tehran, the Iranian capital, after the two met. “Even in security issues, there is no barrier in the way of cooperation.”

Mr. Ahmadinejad said that “Iran will give its assistance to establish complete security in Iraq because Iraq’s security is Iran’s security.”

Wonder if they asked BushCo for permission first. Naaahhhh!

Teatering Ever Closer To The Brink Of Chaos

In Iraq, Tension Over Charter - New York Times:
"BAGHDAD, Sept. 10 — An agreement struck 11 months ago by Shiite and Kurdish leaders to win Sunni Arab support for a new constitution is fraying, causing concern among some political leaders that it could jeopardize Iraq’s fragile governing coalition."I'm not surprised the Sunni's don't like what the Shiites want to do (breaking up into "independent" states that control their own destiny. The Sunni territories in the center of Iraq don't have vast reserves of oil beneath them like the rest of the country.

In Case You Missed It

My Way News - Senate Finds No al-Qaida-Saddam Link:
"WASHINGTON (AP) - Saddam Hussein rejected overtures from al-Qaida and believed Islamic extremists were a threat to his regime, a reverse portrait of an Iraq allied with Osama bin Laden painted by the Bush White House, a Senate panel has found."

He lied. People died. He should be tried.

Can't Pick Up The Trail?

WP: Bin Laden trail goes ‘stone cold’ - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com:

It has been so long since there has been anything like a real close call that some operatives have given bin Laden a nickname: 'Elvis,' for all the wishful-thinking sightings that have substituted for anything real.

After playing down bin Laden's importance and barely mentioning him for several years, Bush last week repeatedly invoked his name and quoted from his writings and speeches to underscore what Bush said is the continuing threat of terrorism.

Here's a tip: somewhere near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, probably on the Pakistan side.

CYA For CIA

Worried CIA Officers Buy Legal Insurance:

CIA counterterrorism officers have signed up in growing numbers for a government-reimbursed, private insurance plan that would pay their civil judgments and legal expenses if they are sued or charged with criminal wrongdoing, according to current and former intelligence officials and others with knowledge of the program.

The new enrollments reflect heightened anxiety at the CIA that officers may be vulnerable to accusations they were involved in abuse, torture, human rights violations and other misconduct, including wrongdoing related to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They worry that they will not have Justice Department representation in court or congressional inquiries, the officials said.

BushCo tried to push through the bills that would get them off the hook, but they got derailed, so now the taxpayers will end up paying for both sides of their trials? That sucks!

Wil The Arrest Come Before The Election?

State: Feds interview Harris' ex-campaign manager:

The Justice and Defense departments are examining Harris' dealings with Mitchell Wade, who made illegal campaign contributions to Harris and later asked her to help secure $10-million in federal money for a company project.

They have subpoenaed records from Harris' campaign office and have interviewed at least three former staffers: senior campaign consultant Ed Rollins, congressional chief of staff Fred Asbell and Mona Tate Yost, a congressional aide who later went to work for Wade.

Probably not, but we can hope. This woman deserves a special circle of hell to be named for her and anyone else who warps the fabric of democracy for personal or political gain. I hope she gets what she deserves. Soon!