Reading Room

We'll try this again...Weekend reading.

A man about to be smeared.

Who might win and who might lose in the next election. Senators here.

That media we all love so much.

Old news but many seem to have not gotten it yet. Damned Liberal Media!

Able Danger more here.

Digby with our American bretheren

I'm A Baaaad Boy

Ok, I guess it's time for an apology. With some of my recent thoughts in the comments section I have not set a very good example, maybe tarnishing those I choose to "represent". Actually, I only represent myself but many others methinks generally agree on a vast array of issues. I think all of us that are free thinkers have some liberal and some conservative stances on things. As much as some of my comments may infer this I don't believe in censorship. Being human I also have a limit on my patience. Even though I do consider myself an advocate of peace and harmony as the ultimate goal of the world I also can get mad and want to fight from time to time. Don't be suprised if all these things come out. As much as I would like to be a robotron I wasn't made that way. Perfect I certainly ain't. Regardless of what I have said recently I do invite everyone to post but I would hope that as you comment, remember that if you expect others to be open, just a little , to your ideas you must be willing to do the same for them or you will likely only find great resistance. If you have an unmovable attitude be sure you will be met with the same. I honestly fear for this country more than anytime in my life(which is more than a few years :-). We appear to me to now be a hated ,totally dependant nation. This does not bode well for our postiton in the world. Let's all fix it together.

The Go To Scape Goat

I'm sure when the house of cards finally completes its fall the fantasy world folk will, surely as the sun rises in the morning , say "Its Clintons fault!"
Well, here is what you might want to say to that. Damned Liberal media!

You might want to throw this in for good measure.

Border Policy

Lots of discussion lately on Border Security. Our Governor in New Mexico and also the Arizona Governor have declared states of emergency over the issue. I tend to agree with the conservatives on this issue. This is diluting the work pool with low wage workers, putting a damper on wages for all of us. Remember labor works on the supply and demand policy just like everything else. Nothing is being done because the corporate interests control the Repubs and the DLC. The answer? First of all I am in favor of LEGAL immigration and green cards. This is not a race thing. We need to hold the companies responsible if they hire illegal workers. We need a green card that includes a hologram or something that can not be easily forged. We need to incarcerate illegal workers for a while to provide a penalty for breaking the law. Maybe we could use one of those closed military bases for that?
That's a few brief thoughts. What are yours? I'd like to hear them.

Even Some Conservatives Now See It

Armstrong Williams, once a paid spokesman for the administration thinks we screwed the pooch in Iraq.

It was a grand idea. But somewhere along the way we were misled by the image of the middle east we wanted, instead of the middle east that exists........ A global democracy works only when countries trust one another. America’s insistence on burrowing into Iraq without substantial proof that they possessed weapons of mass destruction frayed that trust, and will inevitably sew problems into our foreign relations missions for decades to come. It also served as a touchtone, uniting our enemies. The longer we stay, the more people will come from all over the world to fight us. ...... The Iraqi insurgency isn’t about Islamic fundamentalism. It’s not even about fighting for independence. People have poured in form around the world to support them in the struggle to reject America’s superiority......You cannot lead in a global democracy, if people do not trust you. It is undeniable that we went about this in a very flawed manner. We need to admit that. We cannot solve the problem of terrorism by asserting our will on the world. Meanwhile, the deterioration of Iraq continues, serving as a sad reminder of the failed promise of this mission, and the need to pull out.

Couldn't have said it better myself. When even a Rush fill in agrees, the reality based world is setting in on people..thank God. Maybe soon we can get out and get back on track to the fight against terrorism.

Kick'em Out, Ya That's The Ticket

From Digbys' blog:

I hear liberals say in frustration that they'd like to leave the country or that they'd like to secede, things like that. But I never hear them say that they'd like to kick their political rivals out of the country. Perhaps it's a fine distinction, but it's a distinction nonetheless. Via media Matters, here's Rush:

We just had Stephen Breyer saying, oh, yeah, totally appropriate, we must import what they're doing around the world in other democracies, it will help buttress their attempt to establish the rule of law, and we might learn something, too. Well, here's something I'd like to import. I'd like to import the ability that the Brits are doing to export and deport a bunch of hate-rhetoric filled mullahs and imams that are stoking anti-American sentiment. Wouldn't it be great if anybody who speaks out against this country, to kick them out of the country? Anybody that threatens this country, kick 'em out. We'd get rid of Michael Moore, we'd get rid of half the Democratic Party if we would just import that law. That would be fabulous. The Supreme Court ought to look into this. Absolutely brilliant idea out there.

Digby: That first amendment has outlived its usefulness now that the right people are in charge anyway. (Calling the government "jack booted thugs" would be fine under certain circumstances, but not in others, I assume.)So Rush just openly fantasizes in front of his 20 million listeners about deporting Michael Moore and half (only half?) of the Democratic Party. I'm sure all those Real Americans in their offices and cars just sat back and thought, "yeah, wouldn't it be great is we could just get rid of all those people once and for all?" In modern parlance I think that could be called "political cleansing." It's been done before --- usually by communists, the modern republican's favorite role models. Totalitarians 'R Us.

About as sick as you can get. Back to rehab for you Rushbo. If one talks of destroying America, Ok, I'm with you. Dissenters, repairing America, sorry all you phonies but that's called freedom! These people, including one who comments here are lost souls. They have completely lost the American way. Exactly what formed this country, Exactly what gives them a voice when they are not in power, now is taboo to "good Americans". These are truly the people that hate America, the American way and all that it stands for.

Update: From the August 15 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: I mean, Cindy Sheehan is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real, including the mainstream media's glomming onto it. It's not real. It's nothing more than an attempt. It's the latest effort made by the coordinated left.

I think this is called paranoid schizophrenia...yep rehab is certainly in order.

Do You Support Our Troops?

Then you ought to be supporting the Democrats!

Theocracy Where Democracy Should Have Been

Thank you Americans for our Islamic Republic.

But whatever the outcome on specific disputes, the document on which Iraq's future is to be built will require laws to be compliant with Islam. Kurds and Shiites are expecting de facto long-term political privileges. And women's rights will not be as firmly entrenched as Washington has tried to insist, U.S. officials and Iraq analysts say.
"We set out to establish a democracy, but we're slowly realizing we will have some form of Islamic republic," said another U.S. official familiar with policymaking from the beginning, who like some others interviewed would speak candidly only on the condition of anonymity. "That process is being repeated all over."
U.S. officials now acknowledge that they misread the strength of the sentiment among Kurds and Shiites to create a special status. The Shiites' request this month for autonomy to be guaranteed in the constitution stunned the Bush administration, even after more than two years of intense intervention in Iraq's political process, they said.

With the Iranian situation "brewing" it is becoming apparent that they are getting exactly what they were trying to avoid. Such capable leaders. Suprized? I'm not.

Coffee Table

Now, I KNOW you've got something to say....Say it!