Misguided U.S. Invasion Spawned Current Disaster

As lunatics like John McCain shout that American troops need to return to Iraq and/or blame Obama for recent events, saner minds have connected the dots - a task that truly isn't difficult - and lay the blame for today's disaster in Iraq where it really belongs: at the feet of Chimperator George W. Bush and Emperor Palpatine Cheney and their minions who lied to the American people and launched the nation on a fool's errand 11 years ago.  Not only was the invasion ill planned, but not apparent thought was ever really given to the issue of what happen after Saddam Hussein was toppled from power.  Meanwhile, thousands of young Americans lost their lives for ultimately nothing and America went a go way towards bankrupting itself.  Yet the GOP seemingly still hasn't learned.  A piece by Agence France-Presse reprinted in The Raw Story should be mandatory reading for everyone in Congress.  Here are article excepts:

The rise of Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Iraq can be traced to America's invasion of the country more than a decade ago, as it left a power vacuum and unleashed sectarian bloodletting, experts said Friday.

With television footage of Sunni extremists sweeping across Iraq this week, critics of former president George W. Bush's decision to invade in 2003 said the onslaught offered yet more proof of the war's disastrous fallout.

Neoconservatives who backed Bush's decision touted the war as a way to build a model for democracy in the Middle East. Instead, it has fueled an explosive Sunni-Shiite divide that is still sending shockwaves through the region, experts said. 

For University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole, events in Iraq are "an indictment of the George W. Bush administration, which falsely said it was going into Iraq because of a connection between Al-Qaeda and Baghdad."  "There was none," said Cole, an outspoken opponent of the invasion.

But by occupying and "weakening" Iraq, the Bush administration ironically created conditions that allowed Al-Qaeda "to take and hold territory in our own time," he wrote.

The late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was long painted as an arch-enemy by the United States, but more than ten years since US-led forces toppled his regime, his era appears relatively stable and innocuous compared to the virulent threats now engulfing Iraq and causing alarm in Washington.

Saddam's fall opened the door to an emboldened Iran extending its reach across the region, a Shiite-led government that has alienated Sunnis and helped give birth to Al-Qaeda linked extremists now entrenched in Iraq and Syria, analysts said.

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had foreseen a fiasco from the outset.

"We warned long ago that the adventurism the Americans and the British started there would not end well," Lavrov said Thursday.

Without referring to Bush by name, Lavrov said the situation in Iraq has been "deteriorating at an exponential rate" ever since the Americans ousted Saddam.  Other commentators blamed the Bush administration for the wholesale dismantling of Baghdad's entire government apparatus without building an alternative.

"There's plenty of room for finger-pointing for the debacle in Iraq. Let's not forget the disastrous decision to start the war in 2003 as the place to begin finger-pointing," Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former CIA officer, told AFP.

As for McCain, if he thinks America "won" in Iraq, then I guess he thinks we "won" in Vietnam.  The man needs his head examined.
 

Bush Advisers Predominate in Romneyworld

With most Americans regarding the George Bush/Dick Cheney era as a nightmare, one would think voters would be paying more attention to who Mitt Romney has surrounded himself in terms of top advisers.  Indeed, a Romney administration would be best described as a third term for Bush/Cheney based on who will be advising Romney on both economic and foreign policy.   Yes, many want "change" but do we really want a change back to the policies that created the nation's near depression?  Not surprisingly Romney and the GOP are trying to keep a curtain pulled across who is surrounding Romney as he blathers vague and continually changing "policies." - policies that change almost hourly depending on what audience Romney and Ryan are addressing.  A piece in Politico looks at this frightening reality.  Here are highlights:

Mitt Romney's running as far as he can from George W. Bush.  In all three presidential debates, Romney's raced from the last Republican president's policies — claiming he's got new ideas for foreign policy, the deficit and energy

But for all of Romney's efforts to divorce himself from Bush, behind the scenes there's one critical way he's given the era a full embrace: its people.

Romney's brought on a cadre of Bush officials to serve as his senior policy advisers, lead his presidential transition effort and help him raise millions to fuel his run — the pillars of his campaign and a potential administration.

On foreign policy,  .  .  .  .   17 of Romney's 24 special advisers and the vast majority of his issue co-chairs worked in the Bush administration. Some of them are big names, like former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former CIA Director Michael Hayden and State Department vet Paula Dobriansky.

His transition team, which would staff up a potential administration, is run by Bush alum Michael Leavitt, former Health and Human Services secretary; Josh Bolton, Bush's chief of staff; Robert Zoellick, former World Bank president; and Emil Henry, who worked in Bush's Treasury Department, have also been in on the planning.

Democrats believe linking Romney with Bush can be effective on the campaign trail.  "There is still a holdover that George Bush unnecessarily got us into war and then prolonged it, and that foreign policy combined with a really weak domestic policy sort of created the hole that we're in," said Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen.

Further, Rosen said that branding Romney with Bush is effective because he has "projected an old-fashioned view of the Soviet Union, of women, of education, of energy, and I think that continuing to tie him to sort of what are icons of the past helps Obama on his being a leader for the future."

Other key Romney advisers on domestic and international economic policies and other policy areas include some of the most influential members of Bush's team — though they haven't always advocated the policies Romney is now pushing on the campaign trail

The head of Romney’s national security transition team — Robert Zoellick — was also one of the main architects of George W. Bush’s international economic policies. Zoellick served as U.S. Trade Representative from 2001 to 2005, when he negotiated a series of free trade deals, and then as deputy secretary of State from 2005 to 2006.

It is totally unreasonable to expect a new approach from a Romney administration when he has surrounded himself with the same architects that brought us a disastrous economy and disastrous, unnecessary wars.  Another piece in the New York Times continues this theme of looking at who Romney seeks as advisers and spokesmen especially on issues of race.  It clearly underscores the increasingly blatant racism of today's GOP.  Here are excerpts from this column:

The saying goes: A man is known by the company he keeps.  If that is true, what does the company Mitt Romney keeps say about him?

This week Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama again, as he did in 2008. That apparently set John Sununu, a co-chairman of the Romney campaign, on edge.  .  .  .  .  In Sununu’s world of racial reductionism, Powell’s endorsement had a more base explanation: it was a black thing. 

Sununu is the same man who said that the president performed poorly in the first debate because “he’s lazy and disengaged.” He is also the same man who said of the president in July, “I wish this president would learn how to be an American.” 

Could Sununu be unaware that many would register such comments as coded racism? Or was that the intent?   Sununu has apologized, somewhat, for his racial attack on Powell’s motives. But what should we make of all this? 

We have a very racially divided electorate. As The Washington Post reported Thursday, “Obama has a deficit of 23 percentage points, trailing Republican Mitt Romney 60 percent to 37 percent among whites, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News national tracking poll.” 

The report pointed out that nearly 80 percent of nonwhites support Obama, while 91 percent of Romney’s supporters are white. I worry that Sununu’s statements intentionally go beyond recognizing racial disparities and seek to exploit them. 

What does that say about Romney, and what does it say about his campaign’s tactics?  Remember: A man is known by the company he keeps.  To understand Sununu, it is important to understand his political history.

Poll: More Blame Bush Than Obama For Nation's Bad Economy

In what cannot be happy news for Mitt Romney, a new Gallup poll shows that by a considerable margin Americans outside of Kool-Aid drinking GOP circles blame Chimperator George Bush for the nation's crippled economy far more than they blame Barack Obama.  While Romney continues to try to blame Obama for the continued economic doldrums, 68% of Americans recognize where the real fault lies: George Bush, Emperor Palpatine Cheney and the GOP controlled Congress.  Obviously, Obama needs to keep pounding on this fact - and the fact that Romney's proposals to date are little more than a warmed over version of the disastrous policies of the Chimperator's failed presidency.  Here are highlights from Politico:

 

Americans continue to place more blame for the country’s ongoing economic problems on former President George W. Bush than on President Barack Obama, a new survey shows.

Though Bush has been out of office for nearly three and a half years, 68 percent blame him a “great deal” or “moderate amount” for the nation’s economic woes, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday. Meanwhile, 52 percent of Americans believe the same about Obama.

There exists a partisan divide on who blames who for the current economic distress, but Republicans are more willing to blame Bush than Democrats are willing to blame Barack Obama.

In fact, 49 percent of Republicans said Bush was greatly or moderately responsible for America’s economic woes, compared to 51 percent who said he wasn’t. On the other hand, 19 percent of Democrats blame Obama for the current distress, while 81 percent say he is “not much” or “not at all” responsible.

Bush’s continued unpopularity - he was recently polled as the least popular living ex-president - may have an impact on the 2012 presidential race, since some of the potential running mates for GOP candidate Mitt Romney are deeply tied to Bush, who served in the White House from 2001 to 2009.

For example, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman was the director of Office of Management and Budget from 2006 to 2007; Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels held the same position from 2001 to 2003. And of course, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is George W. Bush’s brother.

Oil Spill to Foul Entire East Coast?

Having spent a couple of years as in-house counsel I have been holding off any verdict on the oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico until now. The scenario continues to look worse and worse and it increasingly appears that an as yet unexplained policy change during the Bush/Cheney regime may ultimately explain why the shattered well failed to have a costly type of blow out preventer such as is required by many other nations for wells drilled in their waters. A New Republic story looks at this issue as to why the BP well did not have this - in retrospect - incredibly crucial piece of equipment. Here are some highlights:
*
Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s terrific reporting last week, there are two important things we already know.
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First, an oil-drilling procedure called cementing—which is supposed to prevent oil and natural gas from escaping by filling gaps between the outside of the well pipe and the inside of the hole bored into the ocean floor—has been identified as a leading cause of well blowouts. Indeed, a 2007 study by the Minerals Management Service (or MMS, the division of the Interior Department responsible for offshore drilling) found that this procedure was implicated in 18 out of 39 blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico over the 14 years it studied—more than any other factor. Cementing, which was handled by Halliburton, had just been completed prior to the recent explosion.
*
Second, the oil well now spewing large quantities of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico lacked a remote-control acoustic shutoff switch used by rigs in Norway and Brazil as the last line of defense against underwater spills. There’s a story behind that. As the Journal reports, after a spill in 2000, the MMS issued a safety notice saying that such a back-up device is “an essential component of a deepwater drilling system.” The industry pushed back in 2001, citing alleged doubts about the capacity of this type of system to provide a reliable emergency backup. By 2003, government regulators decided that the matter needed more study after commissioning a report that offered another, more honest reason: “acoustic systems are not recommended because they tend to be very costly.” I guess that depends on what they’re compared to. The system costs about $500,000 per rig. BP is spending at least $5 million per day battling the spill, the well destroyed by the explosion is valued at $560 million, and estimated damages to fishing, tourism, and the environment already run into the billions.
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There’s something else we know, something that suggests an explanation for this sequence of events. After the Bush administration took office, the MMS became a cesspool of corruption and conflicts of interest. In September 2008, Earl Devaney, Interior’s Inspector General, delivered a report to Secretary Dirk Kempthorne that has to be read to be believed. One section, headlined “A Culture of Ethical Failure,” documented the belief among numerous MMS staff that they were “exempt from the rules that govern all other employees of the Federal Government.” They adopted a “private sector approach to essentially everything they did.” This included “opting themselves out of the Ethics in Government Act.”
*
So here’s my question: what is responsible for MMS’s change of heart between 2000 and 2003 on the crucial issue of requiring a remote control switch for offshore rigs? What we do know is that unfettered oil drilling was to Dick Cheney’s domestic concerns what the invasion of Iraq was to his foreign policy—a core objective, implacably pursued regardless of the risks. Is there a connection between his infamous secret energy task force and the corrupt mindset that came to dominate a key program within MMS?

*

As for how bad will the spill get, the Washington Post has a VERY, VERY frightening story that, if the predictions are true, could mean disaster for much of the east coast of the USA. Yes, all the way up to the Virginia coast and beyond. If Bush and Cheney had a hand in allowing this well to be drilled without equipment that could have averted this disaster, in addition to being tried for war crimes, we have another indictment against them. Meanwhile, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell continues to favor drilling off the Virginia coast. Here are highlights:
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[W]ith each day that the leaking oil well a mile below the surface remains uncapped, scientists and energy industry observers are imagining outcomes that range from bad to worse to worst, with some forecasting a calamity of historic proportions.
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Three scientists in separate interviews Tuesday said the gulf's "loop current," a powerful conveyor belt that extends about 3,000 feet deep, will almost surely take the oil down through the eastern gulf to the Straits of Florida, a week-long trip, roughly. The oil would then hang a sharp left, riding the Florida Current past the Keys and north again, directly into the Gulf Stream, which could carry it within spitting distance of Palm Beach and up the East Coast to Cape Hatteras, N.C.
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For the moment, the oil flowing from the blown-out well in what the industry calls Mississippi Canyon Block 252 is still many miles north of the loop current. . . . The oil so far has barely touched coastal islands and hasn't come ashore, but environmentalists are poised for a catastrophic impact that could last decades.
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At a news conference Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said he had asked federal officials to look for ways to increase the Mississippi River's flow to keep the slick at bay. "Let's make no mistake about what's at stake here," he said. "This is our very way of life."

Onward Christian Soldiers - Bush's Daily Briefings

GQ of all publications has published a series of top secret daily intelligence briefings from Donald Rumsfeld's office at the Pentagon for the Chimperator a/k/a President George W. Bush early in the Iraq war. What is both startling and frightening is that all are adorned with militaristic Bible verses perhaps further proving that for 8 years the USA was headed by a delusional religious nutcase. Bob Felton aptly describes it over at Civil Commotion:
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I don’t suppose we’ll ever really know how much this sort of thing influenced Bush’s thinking but, increasingly, the more we learn the more he appears to have been out of touch with reality, believed himself invested by God with a great work, and certain that everything would come right in the end so long as he held inflexibly to the cosmic instructions given him.
*
I urge readers to watch the GQ slide show here and to ponder long and hard whether we can survive more of this kind of lunacy in our elected officials and political policies. Remember too that this is the mindset that controls the opponents of gay rights and candidates like Bob McDonnell who are able to grasp objective reality because of their extreme religious beliefs. I am not anti-religion per se, but at some point some connection with reality is required. Obviously, George W. , the leadership of the Christian Right, and the GOP base do not have that much needed connection with reality.

The 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2007

This list was too good to pass up (http://www.buffalobeast.com/122/50mostloathsome2007.html). I figured I would highlight a few of the folks I have taken to task during the last eight months of serious blogging. I hope you enjoy it.

1. George W. Bush

Charges: Is it a civil rights milestone to have a retarded president? Maybe it would be, if he were ever legitimately elected. You can practically hear the whole nation holding its breath, hoping this guy will just fucking leave come January '09 and not declare martial law. Only supporters left are the ones who would worship a fucking turnip if it promised to kill foreigners. Is so clearly not in charge of his own White House that his feeble attempts to define himself as "decider" or "commander guy" are the equivalent of a five-year-old kid sitting on his dad's Harley and saying "vroom vroom!" Has lost so many disgusted staffers that all he's left with are the kids from Jesus Camp. The first president who is so visibly stupid he can say "I didn't know what was in the National Intelligence Estimate until last week" and sound plausible. Inarguably a major criminal and a much greater threat to the future of America than any Muslim terrorist.

Exhibit A: "And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I'm sorry it's the case, and I'll work hard to try to elevate it."

Sentence: Dismembered, limbs donated to injured veterans.

7. Erik Prince

Charges: Priming Baghdad's streets for American imperialism by making them pristinely wog-free. Prince's Iraq is one massive free-fire zone for his bullet-sweating mercenaries, a Hogan's Alley in which everyone dusky is blithely expendable, rape is a mischievous dalliance, and accountability an inside joke. Remarkably, enabling the US occupation and simultaneously fomenting destabilizing enmity. Bringing the privatization of warfare to full fruition -- next time, Exxon can just invade a country directly.

Exhibit A: Blackwater Vice Chairman Cofer Black is Mitt Romney's campaign counterterrorism policy adviser. The company's website also hawks infant onesies.

Sentence: Tanned and tethered outside Baghdad's Green Zone after curfew. Whatever happens, happens.

20. Larry Craig

Charges: This year's eminent toe-tappin' conservative queen of hypocrisy. Thought the Defense of Marriage Act was FABULOUS! -- because he personally needs legislation to keep him straight. Didn't work. Brought unwanted knowledge of the intricate culture of anonymous gay public restroom sex into America's living rooms. Embodies both the cause and result of faith-based sexual repression. Insists on dragging out the least plausible public denial of buggery since Liberace's, presumably for the benefit of his frozen-smiled, slowly maddening wife.

Exhibit A: "I am not gay. I never have been gay."

Sentence: Stoned to death.

21. David Vitter
Charges: And yet another family values Republican and Clinton-basher gets his glass house blown in. A staunch marriage defender and abstinence promoter who paid $300 an hour for his favorite hooker? The only surprise there is that he's still hanging around the Senate, but then again, he did say he was sorry. Denies evolution, yet was still compelled by his primate DNA to spread his seed far and wide.
Exhibit A: According to some, Vitter was nicknamed "the shitter" by Canal Street whores for his predilection for diaper play. Wholesome!
Sentence: Wife follows through on that Lorena Bobbitt comment she made during the Lewinski scandal.

47. Mike Huckabee

Charges: What's worse, a calculating politician pretending to be a devout Christian, or a genuine heartland preacher who didn't come from no monkey? Huckabee is both -- a Southern Baptist who rejects Darwin, wants to give everyone a gun and thinks people with AIDS should be quarantined, and a seedy, corrupt politician who's never seen a payoff so low he won't stoop to pick it up. Democrats see Huckabee as easily defeated in a general election, but they shouldn't be so sure -- Smooth talking preachers tend to do well in this country. Huckabee is well-spoken, kind-faced, and the opposite of wordly -- he's Obama for hicks.
Exhibit A: "I got into politics because I knew government didn't have the real answers, that the real answers lie in accepting Jesus Christ into our lives... I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ."
Sentence: Just as he's about to win the GOP nomination, a freak gust of wind catches Huckabee's excess skin and carries him out over the Atlantic, where he drifts for hours before God appears to him, tells him He's a Unitarian, and sends him to hell.

Abstinence Programs Are Facing Rejection

This Washington Post article shows (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/15/AR2007121500773.html?nav=hcmodule)that that people - and states, Virginia included - are waking up to the fact that the abstinence only sex education classes much loved by the Chimperator and the Christofascists of the far right (no doubt because some of their organizations have been able to suck at the government money trough under this ruse) do not work. Hello, what a surprise!! I think most teenagers (if not to mention higher grade elementary students) could have predicted this outcome.

Once again, the religious agenda of Bush and the members the lunatic far right - Victoria Cobb of The Family Foundation here in Virginia springs to mind - ignore reality and common sense to push their agenda of attempting to force their religious views on all. Why the Democrats in Congress do not act to CUT funding rather than increase it is dumbfounding. To me it is one more proof that the Democrats lack any back bone and will not challenge the Chimperator head on. Why they allow a president with some of the lowest approval ratings ever to bully them mystifies me. Stand up and fight, damn it! P. S. the photo above is dedicated to Ms. Cobb also pictured above, who I suspect is borderline frigid at best since she goes into near spasms at the mention of that dirty word, sex. Here are some story highlights:

The number of states refusing federal money for "abstinence-only" sex education programs jumped sharply in the past year as evidence mounted that the approach is ineffective. At least 14 states have either notified the federal government that they will no longer be requesting the funds or are not expected to apply, forgoing more than $15 million of the $50 million available, officials said. Virginia was the most recent state to opt out. Two other states -- Ohio and Washington -- have applied but stipulated they would use the money for comprehensive sex education, effectively making themselves ineligible, federal officials said. The number of states spurning the money has grown even as Congress considers boosting overall funding for abstinence-only education to $204 million, with most of it going directly to community organizations.

This wave of states rejecting the money is a bellwether," said William Smith of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, a Washington-based advocacy and education group that opposes abstinence-only programs. "It's a canary in the coal mine of what's to come." Smith and other critics said they hoped that if enough states drop out, Congress will redirect the funding to comprehensive sex education programs that include teaching about the use of condoms and other contraceptives. "I think this could be the straw that breaks the camel's back in terms of continued funding of these programs," said John Wagoner of Advocates for Youth, another Washington advocacy group. "How can they ignore so many states slapping a return-to-sender label on this funding?"

The jump in states opting out follows a series of reports questioning the effectiveness of the approach, including one commissioned by Congress that was released earlier this year. In addition, federal health officials reported last week that a 14-year drop in teenage pregnancy rates appeared to have reversed. "This abstinence-only program is just not getting the job done," said Cecile Richards of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "This is a ideologically based program that doesn't have any support in science." "The governor has often stated that abstinence-only education does not show any results," said Gordon Hickey, a spokesman for Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), who announced plans to give up the funding last month. "It doesn't work. He's a firm believer in more comprehensive sex education."

Bush the War Crimminal - America's Use of Torture

Andrew Sullivan has some excellent post today that look at the disgusting level of depravity this nation has come to under Chimperator Bush (See: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/12/what-torture-is.html and .http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/12/the-witnessing.html) I recommend you read both of them in full. It is extremely upsetting that the President has reduced the standard of conduct to that of convicted war criminals and much of the public either doesn't care or is oblivious. Of those who are aware of the true state of things, those on the far right, including many alleged "conservative Christians" condone and endorse it. Just look at the GOP presidential candidates behavior on this issue. Here are a few highlights:

You've heard all the euphemisms by now: "enhanced interrogation"; "coercive interrogation"; "aggressive questioning"; "harsh interrogation." Not only have leading politicians and torture apologists used these terms but the mainstream media have adopted them as well, as if writing news stories in which the United States is described as practicing torture is so unimaginable a concept that it requires obfuscating. That it doesn't leave physical marks is immaterial. That argument is one the Nazis used in defending the use of sleep deprivation and hypothermia. What matters is the severity of the suffering (see the Nazi memo above).

I wish these were not the facts. But they are. We now have a direct witness to the torture - and one who inflicted it - describing it as torture; we have all the legal precedents that do not begin to question whether waterboarding is torture; we know the president directly authorized it; we know the epidemic of torture that ensued. These are crimes, committed by the executive branch in full awareness of the law and with premeditation. They place the United States in violation of the Geneva Conventions. And the president bears the final responsibility. I hate to ask the inevitable question: Who will now hold him criminally responsible?

President Bush personally authorized the torture of a prisoner, via the Deputy Director for Operations of the CIA. This was not free-lancing:

BRIAN ROSS: And did you know the CIA officers feel without a doubt you had the legal right to do what you were doing? JOHN: Absolutely. Absolutely. I remember - I remember being told when - the President signed the - the authorities that they had been approved - not just by the National Security Counsel, but by the - but by the Justice Department as well, I remember people being surprised that the authorities were granted.

Midnight in America: the Mainstreaming of the GOP's Lunatic Fringe

Arianna Huffington has a great column describing what has happened to the Republican Party that I highly recommend (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/midnight-in-america-the-_b_69415.html), Here's a sampling of the piece:

The most significant takeover of the past decade isn't to be found among the telecoms, the big oil companies, or in Silicon Valley. The reconfigured entity is headquartered in Washington, but we can see and hear the results everyday on your television, radio, and computer screen. And America is much the worse for it. I'm talking about the takeover of the Republican Party by its lunatic fringe.

Reagan's GOP has been replaced by the dark, moldering, putrefied party of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Limbaugh, Coulter, and Malkin. Morning in America has given way to Midnight in America.

Report Finds Little Progress On Iraq Goals

Once again reality and Chimperator Bush's dream world differ starkly. Despite the Chimperator's continued delusions that progress is being made in Iraq, the new GAO report shows a very different picture as described in this Washington Post article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/29/AR2007082902434.html?hpid=topnews). Meanwhile, more young Americans die and are severely wounded each day (some of Bush's victims are pictured above):

Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 Congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House last month adequately reflected the range of views the GAO found within the administration.

The strikingly negative GAO draft, which will be delivered to Congress in final form on Tuesday, comes as the White House prepares to deliver its own new benchmark report in the second week of September, along with congressional testimony from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. They are expected to describe significant security improvements and offer at least some promise for political reconciliation in Iraq.

The draft provides a stark assessment of the tactical effects of the current U.S.-led counteroffensive to secure Baghdad. "While the Baghdad security plan was intended to reduce sectarian violence, U.S. agencies differ on whether such violence has been reduced," it states. While there have been fewer attacks against U.S. forces, it notes, the number of attacks against Iraqi civilians remains unchanged. It also finds that "the capabilities of Iraqi security forces have not improved."

Reckless Abandonment By Bush

I generally lament the disaster the regime of Chimperator Bush has been in terms of (1) subverting the Constitution and (B) creating a foreign policy and military fiasco in Iraq. He has created an equally horrifying disaster in failed recovery efforts for New Orleans. An editorial in today's Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082401209.html?hpid=opinionsbox1) details just how huge Bush's sins have been in this regard:

Two full years after the hurricane, the Big Easy is barely limping along, unable to make truly meaningful reconstruction progress. The most important issues concerning the city's long-term survival are still up in the air. Why is no Herculean clean-up effort underway? Why hasn't President Bush named a high-profile czar such as Colin Powell or James Baker to oversee the ongoing disaster? Where is the U.S. government's participation in the rebuilding?

The Corps has been busy fixing the three principal holes that opened in August 2005. Its hard work has, in fact, paid a partial dividend. A decent defensive floodwall is now on the east side of the Industrial Canal, attempting to protect the Lower Ninth Ward. Unfortunately, that is where the upbeat news nosedives. The federal government has refused to shut the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet canal that helped cause the Katrina "funnel effect" flooding two years ago. In addition, entire neglected neighborhoods still have no adequate flood control.

Bold action has been needed for two years now, yet all that the White House has offered is an inadequate trickle of billion-dollar Band-aids and placebo directives. Too often in the United States we forget that "inaction" can be a policy initiative. Every day the White House must decide what not to do.

New Orleans appears to be largely abandoned by the Department of Homeland Security, except for its safeguarding of the Port Authority (port traffic is at 90 percent of pre-Katrina numbers) and tourist districts above sea level, such as the French Quarter and Uptown. These areas are kept alive largely by the wild success of Harrah's casino and a steady flow of undaunted conventioneers.

But what makes the current inaction plan so infuriating is that it's deceptive, offering up this open-armed spin to storm victims: "Come back to New Orleans." Why can't Bush look his fellow citizens in the eye and tell them what seems to be the ugly truth? That as long as he's commander in chief, there won't be an entirely reconstructed levee system.

Why am I left with the sick feeling that if these still devastated areas had been affluent white neighborhoods instead of low income black neighborhoods, that the White House response would have perhaps been considerably different?

Housing downturn leaves behind a tattered furniture market

It looks like the ripple effect of the housing market down turn is beginning to occur locally (http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=129326&ran=52005) and I suspect nationwide as well:

Not quite two years ago, the housing market nationally and locally began to slow. As home sales soured, so did furniture purchases. Most of the region's furniture retailers sat back and tried to wait out the slowdown. Some haven't survived.

Sales at furniture and home furnishings retailers across the five South Hampton Roads cities - Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach - fell 20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 from the same period the previous year, according to state sales tax data. During the same period, the number of local retailers in that category shrunk from 273 to 250, or 8 percent. "It's a lot of little things, in addition to the housing slump, that added up to 'I don't need that new sofa,' " said Claus Ihlemann, owner of Decorum Furniture, a purveyor of of contemporary furniture with stores in Virginia Beach and Norfolk.

Decorum also needed to address those extremes in retailing within its own customer base, Ihlemann said, so he adjusted his merchandise and prices. Decorum's least expensive sofas, for instance, cost less than $1,000 for shoppers more sensitive to cost, he said. For customers less concerned about their spending, he said, the store put more emphasis on efficiency and faster fulfillment of orders.

Champine said the furniture industry isn't likely to recover for six to 12 months after the housing market bounces back. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that many economists and industry executives say that the housing rebound will be gradual and won't start before 2008 at the earliest. Given this economic climate, even retailers with great products, strong service and a high-end image can't overcome sluggish sales.

Meanwhile, the Chimperator continues to run around saying that the economy is doing great. Yet another example of his being clueless to reality.

Bush Won't Supply Subpoenaed Documents

Today's Washington Post story, portions of which follow, provides yet further evidence that Chimperator Bush thinks he is "der Fureher" and above the law:

The White House said today it would not comply with congressional subpoenas for documents and testimony relating to the firings of federal prosecutors last year, setting up a potential constitutional confrontation over its claim of executive privilege.

In a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate judiciary committees, President Bush's counsel, Fred F. Fielding, said the White House refuses to turn over documents that were subpoenaed by the two committees on June 13. The deadline for handing over most of them was today.

The committees are seeking the documents to determine the extent of White House involvement in the firing of nine U.S. attorneys last year. That action by the Justice Department has caused an uproar in Congress and prompted many Democrats and some Republicans to call for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.

In a separate action, the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday issued subpoenas for White House documents related to the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program. The White House did not immediately say whether it would turn over those documents by the July 18 deadline.

I think we all can guess what the White House response will be. For the full Post story see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/28/AR2007062800567.html?hpid=topnews

Do you love the kid or not?

John Aravois at AmericaBlog has a great challenge to Dick and Lynne Cheney (See: .http://www.americablog.com/2007/06/do-you-love-kid-or-not.html )

It's time for Dick and Lynne to prove whether they love their new grandson or not.Bush is now threatening to veto the DC Appropriations bill because it no longer includes gay-bashing language that the GOP has put in there for years. The language banned the DC government from using federal funds to in any way support domestic partner benefits, civil unions and the like (not that the DC government was using federal funds, but it was a nice chance for the GOP to gay bash anyway). Now that the Democrats have dropped the GOP gay-bashing language from the bill, George Bush is threatening a veto.

George Bush is willing to veto Mary Cheney's baby. And not a word from Dick Cheney or Lynne Cheney about the legislative child abuse Bush is about to inflict on their grandson. It's bad enough Dick and Lynne Cheney sat by for so many years as the GOP (and Dick's own boss) bashed their daughter, but you'd think that the Cheneys would finally come to the defense of their own innocent grandson, Samuel David. The Cheneys have a simple choice. They can side with their own flesh and blood, or they can side with the people who bashed Mary and Heather and their newborn child.So the question remains, Dick and Lynne, do you love the kid or not?

Unfortunately, I suspect Cheney will sell out his daughter and grandson.

Justice Dept. Reshapes Its Civil Rights Mission - More Focus on Christianist Agenda

The New York Times has an article on what the Bush Administration has done to the Justice Department and how the civil rights of various groups is now a lower priority so that efforts can be directed toward matters on the Christianists' agenda of giving their version of Christianity special status, even when accepting federal tax dollars derived from all taxpayers http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/washington/14discrim.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1181834971-iCGYKPZXuq/7ymJ/mK8aWw). The changes are evident in a variety of actions:

**Intervening in federal court cases on behalf of religion-based groups like the Salvation Army that assert they have the right to discriminate in hiring in favor of people who share their beliefs even though they are running charitable programs with federal money.

**Supporting groups that want to send home religious literature with schoolchildren; in one case, the government helped win the right of a group in Massachusetts to distribute candy canes as part of a religious message that the red stripes represented the blood of Christ.

**Vigorously enforcing a law enacted by Congress in 2000 that allows churches and other places of worship to be free of some local zoning restrictions.

**Taking on far fewer hate crimes and cases in which local law enforcement officers may have violated someone’s civil rights. The resources for these traditional cases have instead been used to investigate trafficking cases, typically involving foreign women used in the sex trade, a favored issue of the religious right.

**Sharply reducing the complex lawsuits that challenge voting plans that might dilute the strength of black voters. The department initiated only one such case through the early part of this year, compared with eight in a comparable period in the Clinton administration.

The last item, of course, dove tails nicely with the GOP goal of suppressing the vote of groups that may be inclined to vote against GOP candidates. Equally frightening is the following:

Along with its changed civil rights mission, the department has also tried to overhaul the roster of government lawyers who deal with civil rights. The agency has transferred or demoted some experienced civil rights litigators while bringing in lawyers, including graduates of religious-affiliated law schools and some people vocal about their faith, who favor the new priorities. That has created some unease, with some career lawyers disdainfully referring to the newcomers as “holy hires.”

Figures provided by the department show that from 2003 through 2006, there was a notable increase of hirings from religious-affiliated institutions like Regent University and Ave Maria University.

Both of the above named law schools are bottom tier institutions and certainly do not produce the number of capable graduates as a Harvard or Yale. But as we have learned with Chimperator Bush and his deputies, competency is never an issue. Only ideology and loyalty to the far right of the GOP matter. If this trend is not stopped, I fear for this country.

The Increasingly Brutal GOP

Andrew Sulliavn (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/) has a great post that illustrates (1) the decline in the USA's moral standing in the view of much of the world under Dear Leader, George W. Bush and Herr Cheney, and (2) Dear Leader's failure to live up to even his father's morality:

A reader has a literary insight into the current president and the creeping brutalism of the GOP:
On a long plane ride the other day I came upon a passage in James Bradley's "Flyboys" that you may not have seen, and that touches on the history of torture, how abberant this is for us. It's an account of the air war over Japan in World War Two, and about, among other things, the inhumanity of the Japanese captors towards American pilots. A downed pilot named Nielson remembers:

"I was given what they call the water cure. I was put on the floor with my arms and legs stretched out, one guard holding each limb. A towel was wrapped around my face and water was poured on. They poured water on this towel until I was was almost unconscious from strangulation, then they would let up until I'd get my breath, then they'd start all over again. I felt more or less like I was drowning, just gasping between life and death."

As Bradley points out, this torture had been used by Americans in the Phillipines, to general scandal and American outrage; there's an account in Morris's " Theodore Rex". When news of these tortures, along with the execution-murders of American prisoners, reached the U.S., the headline in the TIMES ran:

"TOKYO STANDS ALONE AS A CRUEL CAPTOR IN DEFIANCE OF GENEVA CONVENTION."

The hero of the book is, of course, one of the flyboys who ran these risks of torture and killing at the hands of a government that defied the Geneva Convention: George H. W. Bush.

It is a travesty that the GOP has done nothing to rein in Dear Leader and his hench men.