Mitt Romney Urges the GOP to Stand Up to Obama

post from MyDD on 02 July 2009 04:36:43 AM. © MyDD

Now living in La Jolla, California, Mitt Romney has been keeping a low profile even as many think that the former Governor of Massachusetts is increasingly the heads-on favorite to win the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination. Certainly many of his likely[...]

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Oh yeah, real democratic

post from Firedoglake on 02 July 2009 04:30:29 AM. © Firedoglake

Welcome to Honduras, mind your own damned business[...]

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Turning from Iraq to Afghanistan, signs of
Obama's softer power

post from BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 02 July 2009 04:19:48 AM. © BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

Body

The symbolic contrast could not have been more telling. Although he designated this week's withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraqi cities as an "important milestone," President Obama nevertheless piggybacked -- with "little fanfare," as the New York Times observed -- on another White House ceremony to make the announcement.

The semi-distinguished occasion was what you might call a necessary farce -- an exiting proverbial whimper, not a bang; a toe-tagging of peremptory imperial stupidity; a body-outline-chalking of six years of inclusive, colossal waste.

Yet the underlying farce endures, and no one knows that better than the stage managers and script writers of Obama's announcement. "Now make no mistake," said the president. "There will be difficult days ahead. We know that violence in Iraq will continue," although he married that certain knowledge to a rhetorical confidence that Iraqi insurgents would, in time, whither away.

Perhaps -- in a century, or a millenium. But, soft power willing, we'll be long gone before sectarian Iraqis come to their senses. And in that confidence, I think, Obama's is more than rhetorical. This was a phallocratic war that only the insular, underdeveloped neoconservative mind could have conceived; and, love him or hate him, one can't peg the worldly Obama with immature parochialism.

He wants out, bad, because he knows that our staying in will accomplish no good. Iraq, unsurprisingly, is an Iraqi problem.

But what of Afghanistan? Is that an Afghan problem? To me it is -- mostly, anyway -- but I'm not running for reelection against war-whooping Republicans who have never been shy about exploiting every possible sign of Democratic weakness on national security. One would like to think the GOP's public credibility is somewhere below Bernie Madoff's, but when it comes to cheap, nationalistic sensationalism, the party retains a latent appeal.

So, distressing as it was to watch Obama transport 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, political realities further eased suspicion that the president is a True Believer. And yesterday, writing in the Washington Post, Bob Woodward largely confirmed our transcendent hopes.

In "Key in Afghanistan: Economy, Not Military," amid its boilerplate reportage about how the Obama administration is determined to "[carry] out the ... approved strategy of increased economic development, improved governance and participation by the Afghan military and civilians," there were looming passages that indeed tended, in my mind, to authenticate Obama's softer-power inclinations and longer-term intent.

First, Woodward was told "privately," as he was meant to publish it, by "one senior military officer ... that the United States would have to deploy a force of more than 100,000 to execute the counterinsurgency strategy of holding areas and towns after clearing out the Taliban insurgents." And that balloon-popping assertion was coupled with that of National Security adviser Jim Jones, who, spending part of last week in Afghanistan to consult with U.S. commanders, added that "We are not going to build that empire again," in instructional reference to our Afghanistan mission's dissimilarity to Iraq's.

What's more, virtually everything that Jones told Woodward, directly and indirectly, "seem[ed] designed," wrote Woodward, "to cap expectations that more troops might be coming." For instance, for the enlightening benefit of some U.S. commanders who had grumbled about insufficient manpower, Jones related with very unnostalgic, unVietnamlike poignancy "how Obama had initially decided to deploy additional forces this year."

"The president's principals met [in February] and agreed to recommend 17,000 more troops for Afghanistan," which Obama approved, said Jones. Then -- "oops," Jones' characterization -- "we need an additional 4,000 to help train the Afghan army," which Obama also approved.

"Now suppose you're the president, Jones told them, and the requests come into the White House for yet more force.... Well, Jones went on, after all those additional troops, 17,000 plus 4,000 more, if there were new requests for force now, the president would quite likely have 'a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment.' Everyone in the room caught the phonetic reference to WTF -- which in the military and elsewhere means "What the [expletive-undeleted] fuck?' "

We can't know, of course. Maybe we, and Woodward, were being conned; maybe Jones' traveling stage directions were as artfully managed as Obama's East Room announcement, and maybe there's a decade's worth of more American blood to come. We just can't know. But my money, gambled, admittedly, largely on instinct, is on Obama's soft power.

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The man who never gets old..

post from conversations with an unapologetic black liberal on 02 July 2009 03:59:10 AM. © conversations with an unapologetic black liberal

One man has actually stopped the aging process right before our very eyes...

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Open letter to the Pasadena Star News

post from Pasadena New Progressive on 02 July 2009 03:44:00 AM. © Pasadena New Progressive

to: Pasadena Star News staff: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/contactus

Dear all:

I need you to verify that a series of comments I received today (7/2/2009), yesterday and the day before from an anonymous commentator named "Inside Track" (who claimed to be a Star News insider),

is in reality a Star News employee and sanctioned by you. (this would mean you ok his copy)

Here is one sample comment. Inside Track is saying I have initiated a "malicious smear campaign" against Aaron Proctor. Does the Star News support Aaron Proctor?

- - - - - -

Inside Track
July 1, 2009 12:06:39 PM PDT

Virginia:

Commanding people to not befriend the guy because of comments he made on a website a few years ago is awfully malicious.

<<>>

It sounds like you are turning a political adversity into a malicious smear campaign. Mind you it is against someone who lives thousands of miles away and to my recollection no longer a political figure

If this is about an internal city wide investigation why tell people thousands of miles away to not befriend him.

Do you not believe in free will?

From the looks of it AP could be frolicking with the antichrist and he'd come out smelling like roses after reading your web site.

Honestly both of you are people I would not befriend but you are handing us AP's case of your insanity to all five of us in the Pasadena blogosphere- on a silver platter.

~IT

- - - - - -

As another commentator noted, Aaron Proctor was a phenomena most of us do not want to see repeated and are prepared to take action to prevent:

- - - - -

July 2, 2009 7:23:18 AM PDT

When are we sending the flyers to AP's 'friends' and neighbors

Philadelphia needs to be warned.

Let's make sure he doesn't get a job any where

3135 Aramingo Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19134

- - - - - - - - -

I ask that you read the full set of Inside Track's comments here:

http://pasadenanewprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/06/eye-level-pasadenas-goodbye-to-aaron.html

with deep concern for a city (and paper) I love,

Virginia Hoge

-

Read The Full Article:
http://pasadenanewprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/07/open-letter-to-pasadena-star-n
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#00 - Open letter to the Pasadena Star News

post from Pasadena New Progressive on 02 July 2009 03:44:00 AM. © Pasadena New Progressive

to: Pasadena Star News staff: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/contactus

Dear all:

I need you to verify that a series of comments I received today (7/2/2009), yesterday and the day before from an anonymous commentator named "Inside Track" (who claimed to be a Star News insider),

is in reality a Star News employee and sanctioned by you. (this would mean you ok his copy)

Here is one sample comment. Inside Track is saying I have initiated a "malicious smear campaign" against Aaron Proctor. Does the Star News support Aaron Proctor?

- - - - - -

Inside Track
July 1, 2009 12:06:39 PM PDT

Virginia:

Commanding people to not befriend the guy because of comments he made on a website a few years ago is awfully malicious.

<<>>

It sounds like you are turning a political adversity into a malicious smear campaign. Mind you it is against someone who lives thousands of miles away and to my recollection no longer a political figure

If this is about an internal city wide investigation why tell people thousands of miles away to not befriend him.

Do you not believe in free will?

From the looks of it AP could be frolicking with the antichrist and he'd come out smelling like roses after reading your web site.

Honestly both of you are people I would not befriend but you are handing us AP's case of your insanity to all five of us in the Pasadena blogosphere- on a silver platter.

~IT

- - - - - -

As another commentator noted, Aaron Proctor was a phenomena most of us do not want to see repeated and are prepared to take action to prevent:

- - - - -

July 2, 2009 7:23:18 AM PDT

When are we sending the flyers to AP's 'friends' and neighbors

Philadelphia needs to be warned.

Let's make sure he doesn't get a job any where

3135 Aramingo Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19134

- - - - - - - - -

I ask that you read the full set of Inside Track's comments here:

http://pasadenanewprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/06/eye-level-pasadenas-goodbye-to-aaron.html

with deep concern for a city (and paper) I love,

Virginia Hoge

-

Read The Full Article:
http://pasadenanewprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/07/open-letter-to-pasadena-star-n
ews.html

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Thursday Morning Open Thread

post from AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth on 02 July 2009 03:32:00 AM. © AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth

Good morning.

This afternoon, your president is going to speak about "innovation and jobs." He's holding a meeting at the White House with companies that are still hiring more workers even during the recession. This morning, we'll be getting more info. about job losses and the unemployment rate. A good sign would be that the rate of job losses is slowing. Be great if the unemployment rate stopped increasing too. Those aren't just numbers. They're people.

Still haven't seen the sun up here in Maine. There's a rumor it might, just might, appear today. But, no sign of that yet.

What's the buzz?

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Fox hosts on Franken victory: "in denial";
Franken and nation crazy; Coleman originally won.

Media Matters have put together a nice series of clips showing just how unhinged Fox News have become over the election of Al Franken.

Glenn Beck said of Franken's victory, "[I]t shows how crazy our country has gone." He added: "[I]t shows that we've lost our minds." Sean Hannity claimed that Franken is "not all there," and later claimed, "I, in my heart of hearts, do not believe that Al Franken won that election." And Brian Kilmeade said he's "in denial" about Franken, who he said was "barely sane." Gretchen Carlson responded to Kilmeade by again falsely claiming that Coleman "won in the original election.

To listen to Beck and Hannity question other people's sanity really is to take irony to a whole new level.

And I love the Fox News notion that the whole nation has somehow gone "crazy" when it fails to elect the people they think should be elected.

UPDATE:

Kilmeade takes it even further than the others on his radio show, calling Franken "evil", "hateful," "maniacal," and a "bitter partisan".

Nice to know he's not bitter about this in any way.

UPDATE II:

Limbaugh chips in, calling Franken "a genuine lunatic".

Tags: Al Franken, Minnesota, Republicans, Democrats, Fox News

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http://the-osterley-times.blogspot.com/2009/07/fox-hosts-on-franken-victory-in-de
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US Gains Five Bases in Colombia

The Colombian magazine Cambio is reporting tonight that Colombian President Álvaro Uribe agreed in principle this past Monday during his meeting with US President Barack Obama to allow the US military access to five Colombian military bases[...]

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