Another Surge For September?

September is approaching slowly but surely and things are staying just as bad or worse in Iraq since the President initiated the surge. He claims things haven't worked because the full compliment of troops just got there a few weeks ago. So what happens when we have even more dead soldiers and civilians by the September benchmark deadline? General Peter Pace hints that we might be in for part two of the surge.

From the AP:

BAGHDAD (AP) -- The U.S. military is weighing new directions in Iraq, including an even bigger troop buildup if President Bush thinks his "surge" strategy needs a further boost, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace revealed that he and the chiefs of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force are developing their own assessment of the situation in Iraq, to be presented to Bush in September. That will be separate from the highly anticipated report to Congress that month by Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander for Iraq.

The Joint Chiefs are considering a range of actions, including another troop buildup, Pace said without making any predictions. He called it prudent planning to enable the services to be ready for Bush's decision.

The only prudent planning the military and the President could undertake would be for a withdrawal of the troops. Preferably the sooner the better. It has been constantly made clear that we need to leave if we want to see any progress over there. The U.S. occupation has done nothing but help tear Iraq apart while the Sunni, Shias and Kurds slaughter each other.

I won't be surprised if Bush tries this tack in two months time. If Congress resists, he'll just try to roll over them just as he did back in May. As long as Democrats remain cowardly when push comes to shove, they can bluster all they want on TV and in the newspapers but it won't mean a damn thing. We need to get rid of this guy and we need to bring our soldiers home from the miserable mess in the Middle East.

Bill Moyers Roundtable Impeachment Discussion

Bill Moyers had John Nichols of the Nation Magazine and Bruce Fein from the American Freedom Agenda on his show to talk about the possibility of impeaching the President and the Vice-President and what it would mean for the country. The debate did not turn out to be a screaming match like it would on CNN, MSNBC or Fox but a reasoned discussion that had both sides agreeing on many points.

Bush Still Won't Talk About The Saudis

The President loves to bash Syria and especially Iran for their actions regarding Iraq. Iran has been in the Administration's crosshairs for sometime now. Yet he doesn't even mention Saudi Arabia, not one little bit, not one example of their influence in Iraq and deadly attacks on civilians and U.S. troops. There was a lone, anonymous voice who did speak up recently and shed some light on the facts.

From The Los Angeles Times:

About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa, according to official U.S. military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer. Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.

Fighters from Saudi Arabia are thought to have carried out more suicide bombings than those of any other nationality, said the senior U.S. officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity. It is apparently the first time a U.S. official has given such a breakdown on the role played by Saudi nationals in Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency.

He said 50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come here as suicide bombers. In the last six months, such bombings have killed or injured 4,000 Iraqis.

With such terrible statistics, you might have thought Bush would want to rush in their and destroy their country too. It should have happened almost six years ago since 15 of the 19 terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 were Saudis as well. The desert nation has had the most prolific amount terrorists spawned out of any country in the world. Yet, except for a military base or two that we occupy on the Arabian Peninsula, the Saudis remain untouched.

Of course the main reason that we don't do anything is because of their oil and the relationships that have been fostered between the Bush family and the Saudi royalty. Imagine what would happen to crude oil prices if we shock and awed them. Prices would skyrocket so high that we might actually have to take action on relieving ourselves of foreign oil dependence. How terrible!

The Story Behind The Death Of Congestion Pricing (For Now)

I am still learning about the dysfunction of New York politics. I know it's bad, but learning the intricacies can take a while. Thankfully I have Jacob Gershman from the Sun to straighten me out (for the most part) on how the whole congestion pricing deal went down and failed because the proponents did not play the game that reformers want to get rid of. Basically Spitzer came in to clear things up in Albany and now he is trying to find his way through the jungle with a pair of snippers instead of his old machete. Bloomberg apparently still needs to learn this lesson.

From The New York Sun:

"Don't push Shelly too hard," Mr. Spitzer cautioned Mr. Bloomberg on how to handle the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver. The mayor was exasperated: "It's always the same thing. What does Shelly want? How the f--- should I know?" he said, according to an observer.

Mr. Bloomberg and his team of lobbyists proceeded with a do-it-or-else strategy. He presented lawmakers with a message of urgency: If they didn't approve congestion pricing by July 16, New York would forfeit $500 million. He didn't offer a back-up plan for relieving congestion that would enable New York to pocket the federal money even if congestion pricing wasn't approved.

The problem for Mr. Bloomberg was that Mr. Silver didn't buy the story. He sensed the deadline was an arbitrary date chosen by the mayor and Ms. Peters and that the $500 million figure was an inflated estimate. The mayor had put the figure at $400 million last month, and officials in the Spitzer administration are now privately saying available federal funds may be closer to $300 million. Mr. Silver figures it is not in the interest of Ms. Peters to exclude the nation's largest city from her anti-congestion initiative. The transportation department needs to unload the $1.2 billion before Congress returns from its summer recess in September and re-appropriates everything that wasn't given away. The most likely scenario is that Mr. Silver will find a way to secure the money without the Legislature committing itself to congestion pricing. If New York misses out on the grants, he'll just blame the mayor for not coming up with a Plan B.

I personally find this insane, but it is business-as-usual up in Albany. It was wrong for Bloomberg to inflate the importance of the deadline especially since Silver knew he was bluffing. The state government currently is set up based on feudalism with many different fiefdoms. If you don't appease the key players you will end up getting burned and that is exactly what happened. Today will pass with no deal and no money for congestion pricing, dealing Bloomberg a huge political loss of capital.

Meanwhile Silver has the possibility of looking good in the end if he helps appropriate the money for the plan down the road. He'll be the hero and Bloomberg will look weak. It wasn't how the Mayor saw this going down, but he didn't play the game. He probably hates the current system and that his large contributions to the state Republican party backfired. But he doesn't despise it as much as I do. This is why we need to elect representatives that will make the best decisions for New Yorkers and not their personal fiefs.

Webb and Graham Get Testy On Press The Meat

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) schools Sen. Graham (R-SC) about the situation in Iraq and how the troops are dealing with endless war.

Michael Moore Versus The MSM?

Blog You Like A Hurricane made a great appeal to Michael Moore for his next possible film. It is about the traditional media, the "MSM." The idea came after seeing Moore eviscerate Wolf Blitzer on CNN not only for their critique of SiCKO but their coverage of the war. It touched a lot of us and created a buzz around the blogosphere and boosted CNN's controversy meter so they got some extra ratings as a result. I think Moore should definitely do a movie about the media, it is long overdue by someone of Moore's stature. BYLAH makes some good points in the post on why it should happen.

From Blog You Like A Hurricane's letter to Moore:

You (and many others) have called out the media's blind flag-waiving during the lead up to the Iraq war. You have plainly stated that the media is responsible for (most of) the American public support for the invasion, and gone so far as to say that the blame for deaths of our soldiers can be placed on the American media.

As is often the case with such bold claims, important questions are being raised. Do we need media ownership regulation reform? Is ownership regulation itself the problem? Should the media be held accountable for their actions/reporting? Can they be? By whom?

Fortunately, today we have the internet. I no longer have to sit in front of the television and take what I am told as fact. Regular people like myself can share opinions, research facts and (perhaps most importantly) organize. Websites like Digg, Reddit and even your own allow popular opinion to be shared with a (relatively) large audience. Unfortunately, the internet affords such organization and dissemination a fairly limited reach in the grand scheme of things. And that is why I am writing you.

Make a movie about the media. Extend our reach on the issue. Bring it to light. Name names and cite sources. Make a scene. Start the discussion.

These are all important questions that need to be talked about outside of the blogosphere. Moore has helped people wake up and take a look at GM, gun violence in our society, the run up to 9/11 and now the U.S. health care crisis. The media plays a huge role in all of these subjects and many more. They have become more a tool of the government and corporate America than the fourth estate that our founders envisioned. It is time for a change in how the media operates. Moore can definitely start that discussion.

Al-Maliki Aide: Nevermind

The Bush Administration must have been pretty pissed off to hear Nouri al-Maliki's comments on Saturday saying that U.S. troops could leave anytime they want to. That doesn't mesh with George's surge of death in Baghdad for our soldiers. He thinks he can win this way and no one is going to convince him otherwise, even the Prime Minister of Iraq. Check out the difference in tone between Saturday and today.

From The Huffington Post:

"We say in full confidence that we are able, God willing, to take the responsibility completely in running the security file if the international forces withdraw at any time they want," al-Maliki said.

Those comments appeared to undercut President Bush's contention that the 155,000 U.S. troops must remain in Iraq because the Iraqis are not capable of providing for their own security.

On Sunday, al-Maliki's adviser Yassin Majid told The Associated Press that the prime minister meant that efforts to bolster Iraq's security forces would continue "side-by-side with the withdrawal."

Majid urged the United States to continue building up Iraqi forces so they would be ready whenever the White House orders a troop withdrawal.

Although the comments are meant to connect each other, they mean entirely different things when it comes to geopolitics. Bush certainly has considerable influence in making "corrections" from the mouth of al-Maliki. Though the Prime Minister certainly didn't like doing it, hence his aide making the revision instead of himself.

The President needs at least a couple of stooges to make his delusions of winning in Iraq continue and al-Maliki is one of those unwilling Larry, Moe or Curlys.

Rachel Maddow Examines Presidential Hopeful's Stupidity On Iraq

Ten Years Of Blogging

I am a relative newcomer when it comes to blogs. I started checking them out during the last Presidential election in 2004 and became more of an active participant the following year. This little piece of internet tubing I have been writing in has only been in existence since this past December. To see that the blog has now been around ten years is impressive. The Wall Street Journal took a look at the blogs on this tenth anniversary. Below is a snip from an interview with FireDogLake's Jame Hamsher.

From The Wall Street Journal:

During the '90s, railing at the TV set was the isometric sport of the silent majority. Progressive political junkies watched in isolation as the Washington Post prominently printed one Whitewater story after another as if they originated on tablets of stone rather than the fax machines of Arkansas political operatives. Many people felt like they were the only ones who scratched their heads in wonder that it all made no sense, recoiling in horror as a slick PR operation rapidly escalated from the realm of lazy, spoon-fed journalism to the constitutional mockery of the Clinton impeachment.

That isolation ended with the advent of the progressive blogosphere, which acts as a virtual water cooler for those who not only want to rail at the TV set, they want the TV set to listen. Probably nothing better contrasts the pre- and postblogospheric worlds than the Whitewater and CIA leak stories. In one, the endless repetition of meaningless gibberish was allowed to take root and become conventional wisdom. In the other, despite the constant reiteration of abject fantasies like "no underlying crime was committed," the public seemed to realize that it's not okay to perjure yourself in front of a grand jury and obstruct justice on behalf of your boss. Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald was allowed to try his case in court before GOP spinmeisters could try it in the press, and a recent Gallup poll shows that 66% of the country thinks Bush should've left Scooter alone to do his time.

In only a few short years, the blogosphere has influenced society in so many different realms. Whether it is about cooking, sports, art or politics here, blogs become more relevant and make a bigger impact almost every day. People are getting around old, conventional media and creating their own. It is a democratic medium that anyone can use to say whatever it is they want others to hear. The blogosphere in my opinion is a dream come true for those that want to fight back against a lazy press that covers an omnipresent government. It's also good to get a good recipe while duking it out via keyboard.

Where Are The Dems On Habeas Corpus

It seems quite a few Democrats in the Senate have not added Habeas Corpus to their MySpace friends list yet. Twenty-eight Democrats plus Bernie Sanders have co-sponsored Arlen Specter's bill so far but there are still twenty-two that haven't formally pledged their support. Republicans aren't going to support the lone Republican who created the bill, so where are you guys and gals?

Bob Geiger asks the question:

With the addition over the last couple of weeks of Senators Byrd, Carper, Klobuchar, McCaskill, Menendez and Nelson (Bill), there are 28 Democratic Senators, along with Sanders, cosponsoring Specter's S. 185, which could very well come up for a vote next week as an amendment to the Defense Department authorization bill.

Here's the cosponsor list:

• Joe Biden (D-DE)
• Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
• Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
• Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
• Robert Byrd (D-WV)
• Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
• Ben Cardin (D-MD)
• Thomas Carper (D-DE)
• Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
• Chris Dodd (D-CT)
  
• Dick Durbin (D-IL)
• Russ Feingold (D-WI)
• Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
• Tom Harkin (D-IA)
• Ted Kennedy (D-MA)
• John Kerry (D-MA)
• Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
• Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
• Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
• Carl Levin (D-MI)
• Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
• Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
• Bill Nelson (D-FL)
• Barack Obama (D-IL)
• Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
• Ken Salazar (D-CO)
• Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
• Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
• Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

So I again raise the question: Where are the other Democrats?

We expect almost none of Specter's Republican colleagues to support his leadership on something so basic to our country's creed. The GOP long ago divorced itself of any commitment to our Constitution, so our standards for them have been lowered accordingly. But we expect more of Democrats and should ask why the others are not stepping up and cosponsoring this legislation along with 29 of their colleagues (including Sanders) in the Democratic caucus.

Thanks Bob for raising this issue. It would seem to be a no-brainer to restore fundamental rights to Americans. Habeas corpus is something we should all count on if god-forbid we are arrested and detained for no apparent reason. The detainees from abroad that reside against their will in Guantanamo haven't had access to those rights and the Republican Congress of last year blocked American citizens from that protection as well. We need that right restored, and we need it now.

$12 Billion A Month Is Too Much

CNN takes a look at what we are spending on all of our wars, with $10 million going into Iraq:

A "Black Sunday" For Independent Media

Today is the dawn of a devastating era for internet radio and alternative weeklies. Starting a few hours ago at midnight, small independent radio stations online are going to have to pay royalty fees to the recording industry and alternative weeklies (regardless of political stripe) must pay large increases in their bulk mail rate to the USPS. The revenue that these non-corporate voices is minuscule to the likes of Clear Channel, Hearst and Time Warner and it is these types of companies that wrote these new laws.

From Scholars and Rogues:

This is not a case of ideas triumphing in the free market–this is a deliberate end-run around competition, buying off the government to ensure we only read and listen to approved media materials. And in both cases, grassroots action and media attention have slowed down the process, leading to the introduction of legislation to reverse these decisions. But the public outcry needs to continue to get these decisions reversed. Even the threat of legislation is often enough to get bad actors in the marketplace to change their ways…if you don’t believe me, ask the folks at Save The Internet!

To find out what you can do to help overturn the Internet radio royalty hikes, visit SaveNetRadio.com.

To join the campaign to get the postal fees reversed, check out Free Press’ Stamp Out Rate Hikes.

S&R notes that these voices won't be shut down immediately because both sides are still talking due to increasing pressure from the public. So do your part and add your voice to fight the onslaught of corporate America's invasion into free thought and expression on the net and in print.