Monthly archives: June, 2007

Blair Knew Bush Had No Post-War Plan for Iraq

Things just go from bad to worse for Tony Blair, and worse to – ah, worser? – for George W. Bush.

Turns out Tony Blair knew from the start that Bush had no post-war plan for Iraq. The Observer UK reports:

Tony Blair agreed to commit British troops to battle in Iraq in the full knowledge that Washington had failed to make adequate preparations for the postwar reconstruction of the country.

In a devastating account of the chaotic preparations for the war, which comes as Blair enters his final full week in Downing Street, key No 10 aides and friends of Blair have revealed the Prime Minister repeatedly and unsuccessfully raised his concerns with the White House.

He also agreed to commit troops to the conflict even though President George Bush had personally said Britain could help ‘some other way’.

And still Blair reported to the public in 2003 that he was satisfied with the post-war planning. What possible reason could he have had to jump in the war bandwagon so blindly? What did Bush really tell him? Did they pray together and act on secret, revealed knowledge that they were, by God, doing the right thing?

Click a few sites on the right that show the toll from Iraq, in lives lost and dollars spent. During the time it has taken me to write this post, more lives have been lost, and dollars have been spent exponentially. It’s too much.

We need to hit the streets and forget the blogs for a while.

Let’s do this: wherever you are, write a letter, make a phone call to the White House (White House opinion line: 202-456-1111, White House switchboard: 202-456-1414), call your Representative and Senators in Congress (Senate switchboard: 202-224-3121, House switchboard: 202-225-3121), and express your 1st Amendment right to Free Speech. Tell them to leave Iraq.

And then return to Turning Left and let us know how who you called and what you said.

That’s step one.


We Need The Democrats Now — Not In Two Years

The Washington Times is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has refocused his antiwar crusade as his and Congress’ job-approval ratings plummet to all-time lows. The story continues:

Mr. Reid began the week Monday by vowing to “push very, very hard” for troop withdrawal from Iraq in a Defense Department budget authorization bill in two weeks.
The next day — as the Senate began work on the energy bill and tried to revive immigration legislation — the Nevada Democrat and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California sent a letter to the White House imploring the president to heed the Democrat-led Congress’ call for a pullout.
That same day, Mr. Reid railed against the war and U.S. military leaders in a conference call with a group of liberal bloggers.

Well, hats off to these so-called “liberal bloggers.” Everybody and a some day grandmother is running for President of the United States right now. Yes, it’s nice to see Barack Obama testing the waters so early, and it would be very nice if he was successful. I’m glad that Hillary Clinton is running for president, and, while I give the edge to Barack, I would not be at all disappointed to see her measuring for curtains some day in the Oval Office.

The Republicans have demonstrated a profound limp wrist in running this country and defending her properly. This preemptive war with Iraq that is not officially a war has ruined us. We may be more vulnerable now than we’ve ever been before. Which is exactly why we need leadership from the Democratic Party now — not in two years after everyone has battled it out, we regain the White House, and then try to start working together again as a party.

Enough is enough, already. While Joe and Christopher and Hillary and Barack and John and Mike and Dennis and Bill spend millions flying around the United States, taking people out to dinner, searching for just the right song, or making sure their hair is perfect. Meanwhile, we fall deeper into the crevasse that is Iraq — and the Party-Boy-Who-Would-Be-President prepares to turn the guns on Iran.

So, Senator Joe Biden, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama, Senator Mike Gravel, Senator Christopher Dodd, and Congressman Dennis Kucinich — WE NEED YOU NOW. We need your voices to stop this madness right now. The trouble with all of you running for president is that, while you run, more people are dying, our national economy is tanking. The problem is all of you are trying to find incredibly unique solutions to our national crisis, and you are not working IN CONGRESS. We need you to work together, collaborate, right now, and quit trying to save the world — and your own political careers — by yourself.

The people of the United States of America need you all to stand together right now.

Get off your damned high horses already and start working together to find solutions for things that cannot be solved by one person now. Two years hence may already be too late.


Will The Empire Strike Back?

There’s a wonderful temptation to gloat and rejoice that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby may soon be marching off to prison for a two-and-one-half year sentence. If it really happens, I’m sure he’ll only stay part of that time and be released for good behavior.

The reports say, “No date was set for Libby to report to prison but it’s expected to be within six to eight weeks. That will be left up to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which will also select a facility.” I’m sure he’s not going to stay with the general population. Will he still be able to golf? Time will tell. Polo matches will most certainly be out, but you never know.

But will George W. Bush pardon the dude? Will the Empire Strike Back? Really, Bush has nothing to lose in doing so. He has no credibility. He enjoys no positive ratings to speak of. He has never even tried to negotiate anything with Congress. He’s not a “negotiator,” he’s a “decider,” and once the decision has been made, why discuss anything with anyone? “Deciders” make up their minds ahead of the game, apparently, so there’s really no reason to consult anyone.

We could even gloat if Libby really does scoot off to the graystone college. The temptation to rejoice at this news is enticing.  But, we shouldn’t. Karma and all that.

But a knowing smile does not qualify as a gloat.

We may smile yet.

(Clipart from Clipartheaven.com)


Paris Hilton Should Have Stayed at a Holiday Inn Express

Poor Paris. It sounds like it was a spectacular scene. Judge Michael T. Sauer preempts Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and sends Paris packin’ back to prison to serve out the remainder of her 45 day sentence. We learn from our friends at Salon.com:

And once Hilton’s hearing was over and she was returned to jail, the news was even more grim. “Paris Hilton left the courtroom in tears, screaming for her mother,” a Headline News anchor told us, solemnly. “It was not a pretty sight.”

I have never followed Ms. Hilton’s budding career. I don’t see myself ever doing so. For some reason many in the media, at least, seem to obsess with her every move. Sheriff Baca released Hilton, citing Hilton’s “severe medical problems,” yet never specified what those problems might be. Baca perhaps revealed perhaps his true bias when he said, “Punishing celebrities more than the average American is not justice.”

Let’s see. Our national debt right now is conservatively estimated to be at$8.84 Trillion, 3,504 American’s have been killed in Iraq, somewhere between 65,000 and 71,203 Iraqi civilians have been killed – with estimates putting that count closer to 100,000 and beyond, and we have spent $432.93 Billion in Iraq alone.

I don’t feel sorry for Paris. I don’t weep for her. For some reason this she is news.

Grow up, dear.


Have You Seen The Whitehouse on the Web?

If you missed it, you really should drop by The White House: Officious Website of President George W. Bush, at whitehouse.org. Among other gems, this page offers up to date satire. Today’s news specifies that today is June 8, “in the Year of America’s Lord Jesus Christ 2007.”

It’s worth the trip over. Among today’s headlines:

President Bush Rigorously Defends Immigration Bill to His Rapidly Imploding Base of Xenophobic Crackers

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Today I want to take a minute to gab atcha about the new bipartisan immigration bill which I’m betting the farm will be the only part of my legacy that isn’t a big sloppy shit sandwich.

It looks like the site gets updated whenever the writer(s) get the urge, but what they have up there is clever.


Salon.com Recaps the Republican Debate – with panache

If you don’t subscribe to Salon.com, you might want to reconsider. The writing is smart, snappy, and never misses the mark. Much food for thought.

Today’s issue gives a wrap-up of the most recent Republican Presidential Debate. And it’s a riot. Michael Scherer’s piece is titled What you missed while watching “Deal or No Deal”: Salon watches the third GOP debate so you don’t have to: God frowns on Giuliani, Romney does weird math on Iraq, Thompson proposes a Bush morality tour, and more.

We get a minute-by-minute summary of the highlights and lowlights. Among my favorite:

2 minutes. “My name is Thompson, Tommy Thompson,” says the former Wisconsin governor, in his best James Bond impersonation. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is worth $350 million and does not live in your neighborhood, introduces himself as a “neighbor.” Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee apologizes to the crowd for his hometown, Hope, Ark., which birthed Bill Clinton. “All I ask is give me one more chance.” People laugh.

4 minutes. The first question goes to Romney. It is concise. “Was it a mistake for us to invade Iraq?” Romney won’t answer. He calls the question “a non sequitur.” He also calls it “a null set,” which is a term from mathematical theory that means something complicated involving X, if X is a measurable space, and the “sigma ideal.” Instead, Romney attacks Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid for saying the war is lost.

5 minutes. Undeterred, a reporter from the Manchester Union Leader asks Romney the same question again. “Was it a mistake for the United States to invade Iraq?” Romney says “null set” again, maybe with more feeling this time. Then he says, “That I think is an unreasonable hypothetical.”

6 minutes. The question is asked a third time, but now to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. “Absolutely the right thing to do,” Giuliani says without hesitation. Ouch. That must hurt for Romney.

10 minutes. Arizona Sen. John McCain is asked what will happen if generals report that the surge of troops in Iraq is failing. McCain says he met this morning with the family of a fallen soldier. Then he attacks Hillary Clinton for saying Iraq is “Mr. Bush’s war.” “I didn’t say that Bosnia, our intervention there, was President Clinton’s war,” McCain explains. This is how it is done. If asked a tough question, treat Democrats like pincushions.

A bit later on:

55 minutes. Huckabee reveals the darker side of his faith. Answering a question about gays in the military, he calls homosexuality an “attitude.” “It’s about conduct,” he says, endorsing the current policy that bans gays and lesbians from serving openly. “It’s not about attitude.”

59 minutes. The gays in the military question goes to McCain. He soars. “We have the best-trained, most professional, best equipped, most efficient, most wonderful military in the history of this country. And I’m proud of every one of them.” But McCain also says that the current policy, whose net effect is expelling gays for being gay, “is working.”

And on English as the official language of the United States, which, for some reason is an issue with Republicans, we learn the horrifying possibilities of people speaking Spanish:

100 minutes. Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo explains why Spanish speakers may soon destroy America, and why he would never advertise in his campaign for president in Spanish, which Romney does. “English is the language of this country,” he says. “We should not be ashamed of that.” Blitzer intervenes, “Sen. McCain, I’d like you to respond.”

101 minutes. “Muchas gracias,” says McCain.

Read more here.  It’s worth it.