John McCain Is No "Maverick"

Mark Salter's response to Rohe and the New School debacle was really the crying pained howl of someone who knows that his boss, McCain, is going down the drain and his dream to become President which he wishes above all else are slipping away.

The claim made that Hilary is triangulating issues and so stands for nothing is correct,I would say McCain is doing the same thing trying to be all things to all people while kissing up to the extreme faction of his party.

McCain is no "maverick" and never was what he was and is and always will be is a staunch REPUBLICAN who believes in the philosophy of that party: Pro corporate, anti labor, cut taxes to the rich, "fix" Social Security by privatizing it, get rid of abortion, fully supporting this irresponsible and illegal invasion of Iraq.

Never, ever buy into the carefully crafted media image of McCain as a "maverick".

That game is up.

Tom Friedman - NY Times "wise man"?

Besides his absolute fundamentalist, true believer fanaticism (yes I used terms associated with religion on purpose) involving the "free market" and globalization Tom Friedman is supposed to be considered a "sage" of foreign affairs.

Check out some words of wisdom of old Tom concerning Iraq "turning the corner" over the last couple of years. Like a needle stuck in a record here is Tom......


"The next six months in Iraq—which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there—are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time."
(New York Times, 11/30/03)


"What I absolutely don't understand is just at the moment when we finally have a UN-approved Iraqi-caretaker government made up of—I know a lot of these guys—reasonably decent people and more than reasonably decent people, everyone wants to declare it's over. I don't get it. It might be over in a week, it might be over in a month, it might be over in six months, but what's the rush? Can we let this play out, please?"
(NPR's Fresh Air, 6/3/04)


"What we're gonna find out, Bob, in the next six to nine months is whether we have liberated a country or uncorked a civil war."
(CBS's Face the Nation, 10/3/04)


"Improv time is over. This is crunch time. Iraq will be won or lost in the next few months. But it won't be won with high rhetoric. It will be won on the ground in a war over the last mile."
(New York Times, 11/28/04)


"I think we're in the end game now…. I think we're in a six-month window here where it's going to become very clear and this is all going to pre-empt I think the next congressional election—that's my own feeling— let alone the presidential one."
(NBC's Meet the Press, 9/25/05)


"Maybe the cynical Europeans were right. Maybe this neighborhood is just beyond transformation. That will become clear in the next few months as we see just what kind of minority the Sunnis in Iraq intend to be. If they come around, a decent outcome in Iraq is still possible, and we should stay to help build it. If they won't, then we are wasting our time."
(New York Times, 9/28/05)


"We've teed up this situation for Iraqis, and I think the next six months really are going to determine whether this country is going to collapse into three parts or more or whether it's going to come together."
(CBS's Face the Nation, 12/18/05)


"We're at the beginning of I think the decisive I would say six months in Iraq, OK, because I feel like this election—you know, I felt from the beginning Iraq was going to be ultimately, Charlie, what Iraqis make of it."
(PBS's Charlie Rose Show, 12/20/05)


"The only thing I am certain of is that in the wake of this election, Iraq will be what Iraqis make of it—and the next six months will tell us a lot. I remain guardedly hopeful."
(New York Times, 12/21/05)


"I think that we're going to know after six to nine months whether this project has any chance of succeeding. In which case, I think the American people as a whole will want to play it out or whether it really is a fool's errand."
(Oprah Winfrey Show, 1/23/06)


"I think we're in the end game there, in the next three to six months, Bob. We've got for the first time an Iraqi government elected on the basis of an Iraqi constitution. Either they're going to produce the kind of inclusive consensual government that we aspire to in the near term, in which case America will stick with it, or they're not, in which case I think the bottom's going to fall out."
(CBS, 1/31/06)


"I think we are in the end game. The next six to nine months are going to tell whether we can produce a decent outcome in Iraq."
(NBC's Today, 3/2/06)


"Can Iraqis get this government together? If they do, I think the American public will continue to want to support the effort there to try to produce a decent, stable Iraq. But if they don't, then I think the bottom is going to fall out of public support here for the whole Iraq endeavor. So one way or another, I think we're in the end game in the sense it's going to be decided in the next weeks or months whether there's an Iraq there worth investing in. And that is something only Iraqis can tell us."
(CNN, 4/23/06)


"Well, I think that we're going to find out, Chris, in the next year to six months—probably sooner—whether a decent outcome is possible there, and I think we're going to have to just let this play out."
(MSNBC's Hardball, 5/11/06)

Thanks to FAIR for this info.

Theft Of The 2004 Presidential Election?

Watch Mark Crispin Miller give a speech on the theft of the 2004 election, yes the 2004 election here.

Mark has written a book called Fooled Again about this very subject that has been out since October 2005.

Now you may be asking yourself why you haven't heard of this book until now.

That is a very good question.

The answer should be fairly obvious.

Think about it.

Harry Truman: A Real Democrat

"Harry Truman was no centrist, and neither was he a radical. Still, listening to his ferocious ad-libs back in 1948 (which was, incidentally, not during the Great Depression), his audience could have had few doubts about what the Democratic Party stood for. Truman was explicit: “[T]he Democratic Party is the people’s party, and the Republican Party is the party of special interest, and it always has been and always will be.” He reveled in what Mr. Klein would call “class war,” calling a Republican tax cut a “rich man’s tax bill” that “helps the rich and sticks a knife into the back of the poor” and describing politics as a contest between the “common everyday man” and the “favored classes,” the “privileged few.” Even more astonishingly, Truman went on to talk policy in some detail, with special emphasis on Mr. Klein’s hated “jobs, health-care, and blah-blah-blah”: He called for the construction of public housing, an increase in the minimum wage, expansion of Social Security, a national health-care program and the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act. And this sort of high-octane oratory propelled Truman on to win the election in a historic upset."

This is a small part of Thomas Frank kicking Joe Klein's DLC loving centrist ass.

Read it all here.

Randi Rhodes Before Congress Video

I think it is just the Democrats in congress so that doesn't count because they aren't in charge of anything.

Karl Rove Is In Big Trouble

"In his fifth appearance before the grand jury, Rove spent considerable time arguing that it would have been foolish for him to knowingly mislead investigators about his role in the disclosure of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame to the media, the source said. His grand jury appearance, which was kept secret even from Rove's closest White House colleagues until shortly before he went to court yesterday, suggests that prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald remains keenly interested in Rove's role in the case.

Rove for the first time partly waived his attorney-client privilege to detail conversations he had with his attorney, Robert Luskin, about the leak and his knowledge of it, the source said.

Rove's testimony focused almost exclusively on his conversation about Plame with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper in 2003 and whether the top aide later tried to conceal it, the source said. Rove testified, in essence, that "it would have been a suicide mission" to "deliberately lie" about his conversation with Cooper because he knew beforehand that it eventually would be revealed, the source said. Lawyers involved in the case said yesterday that they expect a decision on Rove's fate soon."

This would be hilarious if it wasn't so serious. Does Karl Rove really think people are this stupid and gullible? I know he got Bush elected President twice....but still.

Check the it out here.

Are You Aware Of This Fact?

There is NOT going to be any exit polling done this November because it is believed that it is "unreliable" now?

This is very scary news.

Nancy Pelosi Blasts Bush On His Energy Policy

This is great but what she said in the few minutes leading up to it was right on target as well.

The idea that two oilmen who wrote our energy policy behind closed doors with oil execs isn't going to lead to this is absurd.

Tricky Dick Or George Bush? You Decide.

Bush Approval Rating Pool

I want to start a pool for the date when Bush will fall below 30%.

Doesn't that sound like fun?

I am picking June 1.

Media Omission

I was at the protest of Bush in St Helena when they took this video. It is very interesting that they mentioned how many protesters were there, which was about 300 and they were accurate about that. However, they never mentioned nor gave any indication of how many supporters of the president were there, if you watch the video they talked to three protesters and two supporters of the president. I would guess this was to provide "balance" as they like to call it. You might ask what was wrong with that?

Here is what was wrong with it. There were 300 protesters and at one time only 6 supporters of Bush there. I know I counted them.

Now if the newscaster has said there were only 6 supporters of Bush there I wouldn't have had a problem OR if they had shown a shot of them to give perspective and context I wouldn't have minded. Naturally that wouldnt' have looked very good now would it?

This is the equivalent of a fireman watching a house burn. It is called not doing your job. This is willful and blantant. It is as bad as lying. By leaving out the context of the situation they are misinforming the public.

Plain and simple.

Bush At 32% Approval

According to a new CNN poll Bush is at a 32% approval rating. This means Cheney is at about 15% I would guess.

How are they going to react?

They are going to wage an all out war to make sure they don't lose the house. If they do they will be investigated. This cannot happen.

Remember that swiftboating of Kerry back in the now ancient year of 2004?

That will be kids stuff compared to what is coming down the road.

Rove isn't going to sit back and let it happen they are going to go on the offensive.

The big media will go along with it.

Guaranteed.

Tyler Drumheller Interview On 60 Minutes

Tyler Drumheller is another piece of the not so hard to figure out puzzle of the WMD/Iraq propaganda and misinformation campaign conducted by the Bush administraton.

Cherry picking is the correct term for what he describes.

Will the big media pick up on it?

Is anything going to get done about it?

Stay tuned.