Presidential Poll Positions

As mentioned in this morning’s ‘BushWhack’ing, a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll is showing something interesting.

Granted, I don’t usually trust polls… but the more I think about this one, the more I think it might actually be pertinent to the campaign as a whole.

The poll (1,002 adult Americans conducted by telephone by on December 6-9, 2007 with a margin of error +/- 3%) pit the top 3 Democratic candidates – Clinton, Edwards, Obama – against the top 4 republican candidates – Giuliani, Huckabee, McCain, Romney – in a head-to-head mash-up.

(Aside; notice who is conspicuously absent? The man called the second-coming of Ronal Reagan, Fred Thompson. Once heralded as the savior of the republican party, his campaign has disintegrated and all’s that’s left now is a couple of endorsements and little else…anyway; back to our post…)

In the poll, the Democrats swept the republicans out the door faster than Rush Limbaugh going through a bottle of OxyContin, well, anything really...

The numbers, as the saying goes, don't lie:

Against Guiliani:
Clinton 51% to Giuliani’s 45%
Obama 52% to Giuliani’s 45%
Edwards 53% to Giuliani’s 45%

No large deficits there, but it’s still interesting… and about to get more interesting…

Against Romney:
Clinton 54 % to Romney’s 43% (11 point deficit)
Obama 54% to Romney’s 41% (13 point deficit)
Edwards 59% to Romney’s 37% (22 point deficit)

A pattern starts to emerge…

Against McCain:
Clinton 48% to McCain’s 50% (statistical tie)
Obama 48% to McCain’s 48% (statistical tie)
Edwards 52% to McCain’s 44% (8 point deficit)

Against current gop-darling Huckabee:
Clinton 54% to Huckabee’s 44% (10 point deficit)
Obama 55% to Huckabee’s 40% (an incredible 15 point deficit)
Edwards 60% to Huckabee’s 35% (a staggeringly large - and smug - 25 point deficit)

At first blush we realize a few things about this poll; John Edwards runs stronger against ALL of the republicans in the survey and John McCain is the strongest republican candidate.

So in simpler words; anyone the Democrats run will beat the republicans…

Let’s just hope we, and by we I mean ALL DEMOCRATS, don’t do something stupid and screw this up…

The Tuesday ‘BushWhack’ing

Have at it...

• A new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released this morning shows that recently-surging gop candidate Mike “Caveman” Huckabee would lose the election to Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama… on the left side, Edwards beats all of the leading gop candidates – Huckabee, John McCain, Mitt Romney & Rudy Giuliani… what does all this mean? Well… nothing really… it’s a poll… take it as you will…
• The head of the CIA is going to testify – behind closed doors – about the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes.
• The Democrat’s budget deal with “President” Bush has fallen through...
• Saying what many were thinking, former CIA agent and State Department counterterrorism official, Larry Johnson, told The Bill Press Show this morning that it was “highly likely” that Bush viewed the videotapes of the 2002 interrogations that were later destroyed. (This is becoming very interesting. If Bush did see the tapes he lied to the American public. If he didn’t see them, then his authority as president is, at best, minimal… stay tuned)
• And have we mentioned? That Iraq will never allow permanent U.S. military bases on its soil? Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said yesterday; “I say one thing, permanent forces or bases in Iraq for any foreign forces is a red line that cannot be accepted by any nationalist Iraqi.” (How will the Bush(whacked) Administration react to this? Will they demand that the US be allowed to have a base there… will they ignore the requests from Iraq to not put a base there? Well, we all know how much the opinions of others matters to this administration, so expect a permanent base there within the next year…)

Nicely done

As I sit here and ponder what could have been with a presidential run by Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), take a gander at a letter he wrote to Attorney General Michael "Not yet an albatross" Mukasey. Wrote Feingold;

“During the hearing on your nomination to be Attorney General and in your answers to questions submitted for the record, you repeatedly refused to answer questions related to interrogation techniques on the grounds that you had not yet been briefed on the CIA’s interrogation and detention program. I was disappointed with these responses. […] Nonetheless, now that you have been sworn in as our nation’s Attorney General and presumably have been briefed on the program, I urge you to provide your views on its legality to Congress at the earliest possible date.”

Your turn Mr. Mukasey...

'Scooter'ing Libby

Seven months after “President” Bush commuted the prison sentence of Scooter “Perjurer” Libby he is dropping his appeal in the CIA leak case. Quick recap; Libby was Cheney’s former COS who was convicted earlier this year on obstruction of justice and perjury charges.

Said Libby’s attorney Theodore Wells; “We remain firmly convinced of Mr. Libby’s innocence. However, the realities were, that after five years of government service by Mr. Libby and several years of defending against this case, the burden on Mr. Libby and his young family of continuing to pursue his complete vindication are too great to ask them to bear.”

AP notes that Libby is still a convicted felon, but mentions that Bush could issue a full pardon as his administration winds down… say on January 19, 2009…

Remember back in July when White House Press Secretary Tony “Job” Snow said that the Bush(whacked) Administration couldn’t discuss the Libby case because there was “still an appeal” going on…

So I guess {he typed, his eyes rolling hard in his head} we can expect a discussion about this from the White House soon…

Right?

The Monday ‘BushWhack’ing

Another week, another helping of a thing we like to call the Daily ‘BushWhack’ing...

• Have you heard that Oprah Winfrey is stumping for Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)? Yeah, me neither… in case you couldn’t tell, that was sarcasm…
• Hilarious CNN political headline of the day; “gop debaters try civility” (Um… okay…)
• Apparently four members of Congress (both Democrats and republicans) were briefed in 2002 about waterboarding and other CIA torture techniques and allegedly no objections were raised on that day. (this revelation hardly surprises me… I’ve always suspected that some in Congress knew about the torture and chose to either ignore it or accept it while publicly ignoring it. Now what? Stay tuned…)
• South Carolina is embracing gop presidential candidate Mike Huckabee… not so much for Rudy Giuliani… does that surprise anyone???
• “President” Bush is suffering from Ollie North-itis as he is saying he has “no recollection” of videotapes existing that show CIA interrogations of al Qaeda suspects or CIA plans to destroy the tapes… (For a president, he certainly doesn’t know a lot about what’s going on within his own administration… rather scary isn’t it??)
• And have we mentioned? That “President” Bush likes to surround himself with people as, (ahem), smart as he is? White House Press Secretary Dana Perino appeared on NPR’s quiz show “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” over the weekend and revealed her most stressful moment on the job. During a White House briefing, a reporter referred to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Perino “panicked a bit” because she didn’t “know about” it. Said Perino; “It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I’m pretty sure.” (Wow… great deducing there Ms. Perino. Did you really think her most stressful moment was going to be about Iraq, Osama bin-Laden, AttorneyGate, Iran or the Constitution?. Of course not, it’s something that happened over forty years ago… something that most people learn about in grade school or high school. Nothing like surrounding yourself with the best and brightest George…)

The Weekly Rewind

It’s been one of those weeks, one where it was mighty hard to find anything to Applaud in the world of politics. Irregardless of that… sit back, open your brain and enjoy this week’s Weekly Rewind… right… now!

I said NOW!

Now??

How about… now!?

Please blogger, how abouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut… NOW! Awright it finally worked…

Applaud: to the findings of the NIE that stated that Iran stopped its nuclear program back in 2003.

Heckle: to the spewing rhetoric coming from every conservative, and a few Liberals, about how the NIE changes nothing, how it’s a ruse to allow Iran to continue its program and part of a clever Iranian deception campaign and how it’s a ploy to undermine the administration (please, they don’t need any help with that)

Applaud: to a group of senators showing some backbone to “President” Bush. A few weeks ago Bush announced an “enduring” occupation of Iraq that was to be implemented without the approval of Congress. But a group of senators are saying ‘not so fast there Georgie-boy’ as earlier this week Sens. Jim Webb (D-VA), Bob Casey (D-PA), Robert Byrd (D-WV), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Carl Levin (D-MI) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) sent a letter to Bush about committing the U.S. to a long-term presence without congressional consent… (It’s on…)

Heckle: to Sen. Arlen Specter (r-PA). The same week that he took offense at being described as a “puppet” of President Bush by Harry Reid (D-NV), he objected to “contempt resolutions against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former presidential political guru Karl Rove for failing to respond to subpoenas” regarding the U.S. attorney scandal… meaning the vote has now been postponed so Specter could “revise the draft resoltions.” (Yeah, no puppeteering going on there at all, no sirree…nope, Specter worked under his own accord I’m sure. It’s so hard to express sarcasm in the written form…)

Applaud: The House approved the Energy Independence and Security Act today, 235-181. The bill would raise CAFÉ levels for cars and light trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020, would require utilities to generate 15% of their energy from renewable sources and would greatly increase funding for biofuels. Naturally, the White House is threatening to veto the bill… (And once again the claims that this administration cares about people are disprove… but why should that surprise anyone?)

Heckle: to Bush’s abstinence-only policies at work, or lack thereof. A new government report shows that the teen birth rate in the U.S has risen for the first time in 14 years, jumping 3% from 2005 to 2006… it had been dropping since 1991. (So all that money that Bush and his party have thrown at programs that stress abstinence have done less than a condom bought at a bowling alley…)

Applaud: to the Senate and House intelligence committees. Earlier this week they sent a “sharp rebuke to White House counterterrorism policy” when they announced that “all American interrogators (nned) to abide by the Army Field Manual, which prohibits coercive methods.” Essentially it means that they’ve outlawed the techniques used by the CIA… though knowing the CIA, they’ll get around it…

Heckle: to not knowing when to shut-up. A few Senate republicans are thinking about calling for a congressional commission to investigate the conclusions of the new NIE on Iran as well as the specific intelligence that was in it… (Those wacky conservatives, they just want their new war, don’t they? Can’t leave well-enough alone can they?)

Applaud: to an unknown gop aide who said this earlier this week; “(they’re) not only the kings of pork, they’re outright hogs.” The aide was speaking about Sens. Tad Cochran (r-MS) and Ted Stevens (r-AK), who have “collected more money in earmarks than any other members of Congress.” (Precisely why Stevens is being investigated by the FBI… some people never learn…)

Heckle: to losing a LOT. A Pentagon Inspector General report shows that more than $1 billion in military equipment has gone missing in Iraq. The report details a “massive failure in government procurement” and mentioned that most of the missing equipment is military equipment and services that were provided to the Iraqi security forces. Among the missing, 12,712 out of 13,508 weapons that includes pistols, assault rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers and machine guns… (this is not the first time this has happened in Iraq, and many times the missing equipment isn’t found until it is used against our military. Something, anything, needs to be done to ensure this doesn’t happen again…)

Applaud: to Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE). He assailed “President” Bush’s claim of not having previously learned of the NIE’s findings earlier this week by saying it’s “unbelievable”, adding; “If that’s true, he has the most incompetent staff in modern American history, and he’s one of the most incompetent presidents in modern American history.”

Heckle: to someone not doing their homework. During a speech earlier this week to announcing a plan “to ease the mortgage crisis for consumers, “President” Bush gave out the wrong number for the new “Hope Now Hotline.” This I can’t blame on Bush but rather his communications staff who should have verified the information before the speech was okayed… btw, the correct “Hope Now Hotline” number is 1-888-995-HOPE.

Applaud: to the Government watchdog CREW for not being afraid to kick-up a hornets nest and for letting the public know what’s going on behind the scenes in Washington. They released a report earlier this week that details “massive failures and billions wasted at the Department of Homeland Security.” A few highlights: $24 billion has been spent, and at least $178 million wasted, on the failed Coast Guard Deepwater program. Over $600 million has been allocated for radiation border scanners that don’t work and a projected $2 billion loss on the SBInet “virtual fence” border program…. (And this is the department created to keep our nation safe… do YOU feel safer??)

Heckle: to the CIA for destroying tapes of “harsh interrogations.” While the agency was “in the midst of congressional and legal scrutiny” over its secret detention program in 2005, the agency “destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation” of two suspected Al Qaeda operatives out of concern that they could “could expose agency officials to greater risk of legal jeopardy.” (Um… okay, apparently they’re following the same logic as Bush and his administration; namely flawed logic. I don’t want to say anything more about the agency; lest I be hauled away in a white windowless van…). Though the news did lead to a nice…

Applaud: to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) for calling on Attorney General Mike Mukasey to investigate CIA officials that destroyed the above mentioned videotapes. (You go Dick!)

Applaud: to military families that have seen this administration for what it is. According to a new Bloomberg/LA Times poll, 37% of military-family members “approve of the job Bush is doing as president. Add to that that a paltry 36% of active-duty military, veterans, and their families believe “it was worth going to war in Iraq.” That number was 64% in 2004. To read more, visit our newest blogroll link; VetVoice, who as a LOT more…

Heckle: to incessant whining. Former Bush counselor Dan Bartlett, in an interview with the Texas Monthly, that the White House press corps is too “critical” of Bush, saying; “I think White House correspondents have been tagged, unfairly, with not being tough enough on the administration and President Bush in the run-up to the war. If you go back and look, they asked all the right questions. The problem is, they’re acting now like they have to be five times more critical, and I think they’ve gone overboard.” (It’s either that or it could be the President’s complete disregard of the people… the Constitution… the law… take your pick…)

Applaud: to knowing that the instability of Mount Rushmore won’t permit any more carvings. Why are we applauding that? Because a former republican congressman from New York wants Ronald Reagan carved into Mount Rushmore… (I just threw up in my mouth a little) Fred Eckert has been busy trying to create an image of what the landmark would look like if Reagan’s face were carved into it. And now you can see the result online at… at… at…. I’m sorry, I can’t link to the site, I just can’t… my ethics won’t allow it. Just be thankful that Mount Rushmore can’t have any more carvings on it, otherwise we’d be screwed…

Heckle: to seemingly making it up as you go. The Defense Department, along with top military officials that includes Gen. Petraeus, are looking to show progress in Iraq by citing the numbers of Iraqi Security Force units that are deemed “independent.” All fine and good, but a report by the GAO says that it’s “unclear” how the Pentagon and its officials have reached those conclusions… (Um, my guess is a Magic 8 Ball…)

Applaud: to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) – been a long time since I’ve been able to applaud her – for forging ahead with a $21 billion tax package that includes repealing of tax breaks for major oil companies. Heckle within to Bush who has, naturally, promised to breakout his veto crayon again. (Again, some signs of balls from the Democrats in Congress… let’s hope it’s a sign of things to come)

Heckle: to Fox “News”. Monday afternoon, the Bush(whacked) administration released a new NIE report that revealed Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Naturally, and rightfully so, the story was featured prominently that night on all three network newscasts… and ignored by Fox “News”, with 3 out of 4 Fox primetime shows ignoring the report… (This doesn’t surprise me. With all media undermining everyone else, Fox “News” is one of the worst offenders and heaven forbid they report on something that goes against their let’s-start-a-war-with-Iran-conservative-drumbeating…)

Applaud: to yet another resignation within the Bush(whacked) Administration. This time it’s State Department IG Howard Krongard, who has been under scrutiny, for a long time really, over his handling, or lack thereof, of investigations into State Department contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan… (at this rate, the head at State is going to be intern Lisa… then again, maybe not…)

Heckle: to something we all knew… like every other department that doesn’t have anything to do with Iraq, the FDA is grossly underfunded and understaffed and, in essence, putting U.S. consumers at risk in terms of food and drug safety… (Granted, this isn’t new, the CPSC is in the same boat. The only difference is that the head of the FDA wants more money and the head of the CPSC doesn’t. What more can be said, we still have a little over a year left of this administration…)

This week’s conservative tool of the week is a 2=fer. The first one is none other than the man himself, Vice President Dick “President” Cheney. Earlier this week the heart-pounding veep gave an interview with Politico in which he said that he is “confident” Iraq will eventually be in a “good” enough place that the administration will be able to look back and say, “That was the right decision. It was a sound decision going into Iraq.” When will that time be you ask, well, according to Cheney it will be January 2009… coincidentally enough the month that this administration leaves office. (Uh-huh…/i>) Cheney went on to say that by the middle of January 2009, it will be clear that “we have in fact achieved our objective in terms of having a self-governing Iraq that’s capable for the most part of defending themselves, a democracy in the heart of the Middle East, a nation that will be a positive force in influencing the world around it in the future.” (Um… okay. Granted, time will tell and I suppose anything is possible… but from what I’ve seen and heard from others outside the MSM, a year is nowhere near enough time for all of these things to happen, so stay tuned…)

The second conservative tool of the week is former Arkansas governor and current gop presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. First it was revealed this week that he pushed for the release of a convicted rapist, Wayne Dumond, even though he was warned that the convict would strike again… which he did shortly after being released. Add to that the fact that he didn’t know one damn thing about the NIE. Do we really want another brain-challenged president in the White House? Have we learned nothing from the current commander-in-chief???

It continues...

As I’ve written twice already this week, “President” Bush said he was never informed by the intelligence community that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003… many people, myself included, thought that that was highly unlikely…

Turns out we were right…

From CNN;

“President Bush was told in August that Iran’s nuclear weapons program ‘may be suspended,’ the White House said Wednesday, which seemingly contradicts the account of the meeting given by Bush Tuesday.”

Sensing that the cat was out of the bag, the White House issued a statement that said McConnell told Bush “the new information might cause the intelligence community to change its assessment of Iran’s covert nuclear program.”

Soooooo…. Bush knew that Iran “may have suspended” its nuclear weapons program and, because of that, the intelligence community was “changing its assessment” or Iran… but that didn’t stop Bush from spouting his war-drum chants of “World War III” or of “nuclear holocaust” because nobody told him specifically to stop…

Since when does a President need to be told to stop something???

The Friday Presidential ‘BushWhack’ing

TGIF… only a few weeks until the first primary of the season and the candidates are getting, shall we say, edgy...

• The candidates for both parties may want to listen closely to the results of a non-partisan Pew Hispanic Center survey that found 57% of registered Hispanic voters favor Democrats, while 23% said they favored republicans…


• Clinton is clinging to a narrow lead in New Hampshire (and Iowa)…and the numbers are getting closer with Clinton as 35%, Obama at 29%, Edwards at 17%, Richardson at 10% and the rest getting 3% or lower. ( I expect the numbers to swing more in one way or the other after the Iowa caucus on January 3rd…)


• Romney has a sizable lead in New Hampshire with 37%, McCain – who picked up a major endorsement in the state this week – is at 20%, Giuliani has 16%, Huckabee has a paltry 9% - sharp contrast from his numbers in Iowa – Paul has 8% and the so-called second-coming of Ronald Reagan, Thompson, has 4%....


• Romney gave his much-anticipated speech about his religion this week and said about Mormonism… absolutely nothing. The speech was being billed as a primer for the voters about his religion, but instead focused on the role religion should play in the presidency. (It was an absolutely brilliant display of playing the media and the voters with political hype; but will it come back to bite him in the ass? I think yes…)


• Edwards came out and said that the recently released NIE justifies his opposition to “President” Bush on Iran… personally I’m just happy a candidate knows about the NIE – hear that Huckabee???


• Not a good week for Huckabee. First his role in getting a rapist released early from prison that almost immediately raped and killed again is pushing him down. Second, his incredibly moronic lack of knowledge about the NIE is showing a LOT of people that he is NOT ready for the national stage…


• The incredibly inane and mis-calculated rumors about Obama’s ties to the Muslim world are still being talked about… why I have no idea…


• Romney fired his landscaping company this week because it hires illegal immigrants…


• Giuliani was abnormally quiet this week, seemingly because he’s letting the furor over the city paying for his affairs die down


• And have we mentioned? That the second-coming of Ronald Reagan went tin-foil hat on us earlier this week? It's true, Thompson said that Iran may have deliberately “leaked” the information on their lack of nuclear program to distract the U.S. so they could work without problems… (Um, okay?? See, he is like Reagan; he’s senile…)

December 7, 1941

Let us never forget...

The Thursday ‘BushWhack’ing

Here we go again...

• Finally reacting to the mortgage crisis here in the states, Congress and the White House have worked out a deal, which “President” Bush will announce later today, that will keep interest rates constant for five years for financially troubled homeowners. (Let’s hope it works, or this crisis will spiral further out of control…)
• “President” Bush was told back in August that Iran’s nuclear program “may be suspended”, a direct contradiction to what Bush said earlier this week. (And this should surprise us how? This is a pattern that this administration has followed since they took office; using twisted logic, lying and subterfuge to get what they want… did anyone really think that this leopard would change its stripes just because their term is ending? Hah!)
• It’s been kept pretty quiet, but have you heard that Mitt Romney’s giving a speech today where he will tackle his faith and its place in politics? (It’ so hard to express sarcasm in the written form… the speech should be interesting and will do one of two things; boost his numbers with conservative evangelicals, or sink his numbers with conservative evangelicals; stay tuned.)
• Mirroring his rise in Iowa, Barack Obama is gaining steam in New Hampshire as Hillary Clinton sees her lead shrink… and keep an eye on Edwards… and… Ron Paul, seriously???
• Blue Dog Democrats are causing havoc in both houses of Congress right now…
• Echoes of Willie Horton as Mike Huckabee is seeing his quick rise in the polls being threatened by a man named Wayne DuMond, a convicted rapist that was freed due to strong support by then Arkansas governor Huckabee. After his release, DeMond promptly raped and killed another woman.
• And have we mentioned? That a former republican congressman from New York wants Ronald Reagan carved into Mount Rushmore? It’s true; Fred Eckert has been busy trying to create an image of what the landmark would look like if Reagan’s face were carved into it. And now you can see the result online at… at… at…. I’m sorry, I can’t link to the site, I just can’t… my ethics won’t allow it… (Wow… who needs coffee when you have horrifying things like this??? At least we know it won’t happen as the stability, or lack thereof, of Mount Rushmore won’t permit any more carvings… thank God!)

He still doesn’t get it...

Yesterday I wrote about the incredible lack of logic displayed by Bush regarding the NIE report that says Iran stopped working on their nuclear weapons program in 2003.

Yesterday I hoped that someone, anyone, in his administration, his cabinet, his house, would tell him the facts.

Didn’t happen.

This morning “President” Bush was in Nebraska and said;

“It is clear from the latest NIE that the Iranian government has more to explain about its nuclear intentions and past actions.”

Huh?

No George, the latest NIE does NOT mean that the Iranian government has more to explain… it DOES mean that your administration has more to explain on who knew what, what they knew and when they knew it.

Less than two months ago, Bush famously elicited images of another World War when he said;

“… if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. And I take this very -- I take the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously.”

Of course that’s all fine and good… Iran having a nuclear weapon would be bad… but with the revelations about the NIE coming out… did Bush already know that Iran had suspended their nuclear weapons program in 2003 when he said that?And if he did, does saying what he said and banging the war-drums merit censuring or, at the most, impeachment?

And before you trolls jump up and down on me about a witch hunt, it’s not just Liberals and Democrats that are getting fed-up with Bush’s (choose one) logic and/or lack of intelligence.

Joe Scarborough had Pat Buchanan (via telephone) on MSNBC this morning to discuss the recent NIE revelations about Iran as well as Bush's sad and pathetic performance yesterday when he said he didn't find out about it until just now.

It’s safe to say that Joe and Pat are dubious about that concept, with Buchanan even suggesting that Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) needs to get back to DC and hold hearings about who knew what, and when. Buchanan also called on Biden to bring Condi Rice and Stephen Hadley before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and ask them if they knew about the NIE report, and if they had ever told Bush, and if either of those two knew about this report, and didn't tell Bush about it, they should be fired immediately…

And Buchanan wasn't the only one firing off at Bush as Scarborough said;

"We are left with only two options here. Either the President of the United States is lying to the American people about what happened during that meeting, or the President of the United States is stupid."

It seems that Joe Scarborough and Buchanan (who are no where close to Liberal about anything) has had it with this administration.

There seems to be a shift evolving with the release of the NIE… people who usually would support the president, no matter what, are realizing that he may be as off-the-chart as many of us have already said…

Stay tuned…

The Wednesday ‘BushWhack’ing

We’re digging out from snow here in Chicago-land...

• Apparently “President” Bush and Iranian President Ahmadinejad use the same kind of logic (a term I use loosely). Today Ahmadinejad called the NIE report that downgraded Iran as a nuclear threat a “declaration of victory” for the Iranian nuclear program. (What. A. Tool. Talk about stirring up a hornet’s nest. Instead of keeping his mouth shut – hard task for him – he has to spout off and get everyone riled up again… and trust me, Bush will use this to up his war-rhetoric. Sigh…)
• As an attorney, John Edwards knows when to use someone else’s problems to his advantage… and right now he’s using the Clinton-Obama spat to do just that. Will it work? Stay tuned…
• Speaking of presidential candidates; republican candidate Mitt Romney has fired the landscaping company that does work around his house because they employ illegal immigrants. (Uh-huh… um, Mitt…)
• WaPo political headline; ‘Nonprofits Become a Force in Primaries’. Crack reporting there guys…
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is forging ahead with a $21 billion tax package that includes repealing of tax breaks for major oil companies… naturally, Bush has promised a veto (it IS going after oil companies after all) but Pelosi is committed to getting it done. (Again, signs of balls from the Democrats in Congress… let’s hope it’s a sign of things to come…)
• And have we mentioned? That former Arkansas Gov., and gop presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee has not heard of the recently released NIE? It’s true; The Politico’s David Paul Kuhn asked Huckabee what he thought of the new NIE, Huckabee’s response? He hasn’t heard of it. We’re talking about a PRESIDENTIAL candidate, who is lobbying to be in charge of this country, and despite the report being constantly in the news this week – the man has not heard of it… at all… come on now people, do we really want another person like this in the White House????

Here we go again...

“President” Bush held his first presser in seven weeks this morning in order to not only admonish Congress for not seeing things the way he does (few people who walk upright do).

But the press corps would have none of that nonsense and turned the conference into a chat about the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that says that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago in 2003.

Most people (clarifier: most people with a working brain) would look upon that news as severely undermining the Bush(whacked) Administration's argument that Iran poses an imminent peril to the world and that ignoring the threat could lead to World War III… remember, I said people with a working brain.

Mr. Bush begs to differ, saying this morning;

“Look, Iran was dangerous. Iran is dangerous. And Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”

Um… okay… by that logic, wouldn’t a physics grad student armed with the internet also be “dangerous”??

The Bush(whacked) Administration also claims that it has new, “secret” information about Iran's weapons program, and that that information differs from the public NIE that was just released, and… and… why does all of this sound familiar?

.....

Oh, right… Iraq… WMD’s… right… must have blocked that out of my mind. Speaking of blocking things out… one has to wonder when Bush became aware of the NIE’s contents. Well, according to the man himself, he was “made aware of the NIE last week. In August, I think it was Mike McConnell came in and said, we have some new information. He didn't tell me what the information was; he did tell me it was going to take a while to analyze...And it wasn't until last week that I was briefed on the NIE that is now public.”

Huh… so let me get this straight… a few months ago, someone said something about some new information about the number one threat to the world, and they didn't tell the leader of the free world what that information was…

Wow… that seems highly unlikely, doesn’t it?

Thankfully, there are apparently still some members of the press that use their brains, and one of them seemed as perplexed as I;

REPORTER: Mr. President, thank you. Just to follow, I understand what you're saying about when you were informed about the NIE. Are you saying at no point while the rhetoric was escalating, as "World War III" was making it into conversation, at no point nobody from your intelligence team or your administration was saying, maybe you want to back it down a little bit?
THE PRESIDENT: No, nobody ever told me that.

Wait a minute… let’s see what National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley had to say yesterday about the NIE;

“One, when the President was told that we had some additional information, he was basically told: stand down; needs to be evaluated; we'll come to you and tell you what we think it means. So this was basically -- as we said, this is information that came in the last few months, and the intelligence community spent a lot time to get on top of it.”

Now I’m confused… Hadley says Bush was told, Bush says he wasn’t told… but maybe he was, and he just forgot…

Honestly, how does this man walk upright?

The Tuesday ‘BushWhack’ing

As we gird for a possible winter storm here in Chicagoland, here’s today’s Daily Whacking…

• Happy Hanukkah to all of TBWA’s Jewish friends, mazel tov!
• Iran said today that the Bush administration must “pay the price” for what it called “lies” concerning Tehran's nuclear program… (this should end well. Anyone know the number to Bombshelters-R-Us?)
• According to the New Hampshire Union Leader, republican presidential candidate “John McCain is the man to lead America.” (Um… okay... and the fact that he’s down in most polls is a good barometer of that, right?)
• “President” Bush is having a presser right now. He’s “pressuring” congress on spending and funding the Iraq war… he also just said that the NIE released yesterday regarding Iran is a “warning signal”… a warning signal to what exactly???
• It was only a matter of time… With his rise in the polls, Mike Huckabee is no longer flying under the radar and his past policies are coming under intense scrutiny… drastic drop in the polls in four, three, two…
• Sen. Clinton’s mud-slinging at Sen. Obama that he’s wanted to be president since Kindergarten is not having the effect her campaign thought it would. (My opinion; whomever it was in her campaign that thought this was a good strategy needs to be fired on the spot. Even the most un-knowing political novice could have seen that this was a bad idea and totally irrelevant to anything going on today. Dumb. Ass.)
• And have we mentioned? That a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows that terrorism and ‘social issues’ aren’t deciding factors for a majority of voters anymore? Contrary to the 2004 election that saw those issues as a driving force in the presidential race, the primary issues are now the economy and healthcare, with 52% of Americans saying those are the most important issues to them in choosing a president, compared with 34% who cite terrorism and social and moral issues as the driving factor. On the surface that seems to favor the Democrats, but only time will tell what this means for the 2008 election. As always, stay tuned…

Desperately seeking... desperation??

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is getting desperate.

Her lead is shrinking and signs are pointing to a Dean-esque like breakdown in her campaign… and one need only look at her campaign’s latest salvo against Barack Obama as evidence.

First they tried to use Obama's donations to other Democrats as a campaign issue (Norman Hsu seen hiding in the corner, pot heard calling kettle black) but since that didn’t work, the campaign decided to delve earlier into his life… and found something… something from his VERY early years that contradicts his recent overtures that he hasn’t always planned on running for president.

In Boston last week, Senator Obama said: "I'm not running to fulfill some long held plans or because I think it's open to me." Well, that got the Hillary Camp all aflutter, from HillaryHub.com;

“Senator Obama’s comment today is fundamentally at odds with what his teachers, family, classmates and staff have said about his plans to run for president. Senator Obama’s campaign rhetoric is getting in the way of his reality.”

Um… okay, what was the dastardly thing Obama said… let’s go to Obama’s Harvard Law School classmate Christine Spurell for that; “It was clear to me from the day I met him that he was thinking about politics.”

He was… thinking about politics… um, ok… what else you got Clinton camp? What’s that you said, 15 years ago, Sen. Obama told his brother-in-law he might someday think about running for president?

Ooooookayyyyy… he said he would maybe run for office… possibly even President.

Wow, that’s fascinating isn’t it? Is that all you got? It isn’t? What’s that you say? You say the Obama-plan was put into effect long before law school?

Kindergarten to be precise, that’s when Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want to Become President'

(An essay? In Kindergarten?)

He repeated this evil plan years later, third grade to be exact, when he wrote another essay entitled “I Want To Be a President.”

Well, that’s it then… we can’t vote for him… after all, he didn’t remember that he wrote essays before he was ten about his desire to become president…he didn’t remember that a law school classmate often thought that Obama would get into politics… he didn’t remember that he once told his brother-in-law that he might run for office someday…

This is what is being considered big news from Clinton’s campaign now…attempts to connect essays and conversation remembrances to reasons Obama shouldn’t win the nomination?

Christ, everyone wanted to be president in Kindergarten… it was that or a professional baseball player, ballerina or actor…

But Obama’s desire to be a president as early as five is enough fodder for the Clinton camp to attack.

Let’s get something straight, I am neither a Clinton fan nor an Obama fan (I have not yet made up my mind about the candidates, and won’t until closer to primary day… regardless of what comes out of the Twin Ego States) but this move is both sad, pathetic… and childish…

Obama’s camp isn’t allowing the inane arguments deter them, in fact they’re using them to their advantage. Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded to the charges with some humor, saying;

“I'm sure tomorrow they'll attack him for being a flip-flopper because he told his second grade teacher he wanted to be an astronaut.”

Clinton’s campaign needs to reign themselves in, or they could destroy their chances as quickly as one poorly-timed yell could…