Americans are anti-incumbent - they want change

post from AMERICAblog on 07 August 2006 10:56:00 PM. © AMERICAblog

That wave is starting to build. The constituents aren't showing any love for their members of Congress:

Especially worrisome for members of Congress is that the proportion of Americans who approve of their own representative's performance has fallen sharply. Traditionally, voters may express disapproval of Congress as a whole but still vote for their own member, even from the majority party. But 55 percent now approve of their lawmaker, a seven-percentage-point drop over three months and the lowest such finding since 1994, the last time control of the House switched parties.

"That's dramatic," said Republican consultant Ed Rollins, who was White House political director under President Ronald Reagan.

Dramatic will be a Democratic House and Senate.

Last week, Bill Frist said the GOP's message is stay the course. That's great, because Americans want to change the course.

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t-they-want.html

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Since Hannity & Colmes had such a liberal
tilt…

post from Think Progress on 07 August 2006 10:47:00 PM. © Think Progress

Conservative comedian Dennis Miller “is joining Fox News as a contributor to ‘Hannity & Colmes’ this autumn, according to a network executive.” Miller did a stint on H&C in 2003, which led to a now-cancelled CNBC primetime show. A preview of what you can expect.

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Going, Going, Back, Back, to Cali, Cali

post from Ezra Klein on 07 August 2006 10:07:00 PM. © Ezra Klein

For the rest of the week. I'll still be posting, but I'll also be surfing, so I've asked the others to pitch in as possible. Also: It's predictions time. I'm going with Lamont by 9 percent. You guys?...[...]

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C&Ls Late Nite Music Club with Delbert McClinton

post from Crooks and Liars on 07 August 2006 10:06:31 PM. © Crooks and Liars

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ert-mcclinton/

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Evening Thread

post from Eschaton on 07 August 2006 10:04:00 PM. © Eschaton

You could talk about the manatee in the Hudson River and whether it means that the end-times are coming. Or about Tom DeLay having to stay on the ballot, perhaps also a sign of end-times. Or about Lamont and Lieberman.

But whatever you do, no flirting.

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http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_08_06_atrios_archive.html#115500289020540114

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Did Mehlman give Lieberman the GOP memo about
motivating the base

post from AMERICAblog on 07 August 2006 09:46:00 PM. © AMERICAblog

Ken Mehlman got a memo about what motivates the GOP base:

Steeper concluded that the president's prosecution of the international war on terror -- and worries that Democrats will abdicate that responsibility -- are the single most active motivator for those surveyed. As Steeper wrote in his memo "A huge 87% of the Base expresses extremely strong feelings about one or more of these issues."

What a coincidence. Sounds just like Lieberman.

Lieberman has adopted the Bush/Rove/Mehlman spin: 9/11 = war on terror = Iraq War = War on Terror = 9/11. Yesterday, Joe was trying to distance himself from Bush. Today, he morphed in to Bush.

Only problem for Joe, which he seems to forget, is that the GOP base doesn't vote in the Democratic primary.

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Kristols giddy Lieberman-Republican VP fantasy

post from Crooks and Liars on 07 August 2006 09:24:24 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Just put him on the GOP ticket in 2008:Is it too fanciful to speculate about a 2008 GOP ticket of McCain-Lieberman, or Giuliani-Lieberman, or Romney-Lieberman, or Allen-Lieberman, or Gingrich-Lieberman? Perhaps. But a reinvigorated governing and war-fighting Republican party is surely an achievable goal. And a necessary one.Yea, dig that great, war-fighting party.

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CT-Sen: Stuff to do

post from Daily Kos on 07 August 2006 09:21:58 PM. © Daily Kos

From a Tim Tagaris email:

It's time to completely run them into the ground online.
Invite your friends inside Connecticut to vote for Ned.
http://www.nedlamont.com/page/invite/voteforned
Find your polling place (probably 10x more kick-ass a tool than Family,
Friends and Neighbors)
http://www.nedlamont.com/pollingplace
Can you volunteer tomorrow?
http://nedlamont.com/page/s/finalpushct
Tim
P.S. They are claiming we hacked their website. Unfortunately for
them, an astute observer caught the screen shot asking them to contact
the billing department. They just didn't pay their bills.
http://nedlamont.com/blog/978/desperation

That last item cracks me up. The campaign is so freakin' incompetent that they can't even pay their hosting bills on time. And, when busted, they cast about for blame elsewhere.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/9861197/2423

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Holy Joe uses 9/11: Remind you of anyone

He said a victory for Lamont will send a message to the country: “In the Democratic Party, there’s no room for strong-on-security Dems.” He said that would be disastrous for the Democrats. “You can’t win in this country,” he said, “unless you assure people" that you aren’t going to compromise on national security. He said [...]

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The War (Israel-Lebanon) from Here (Brooklyn)

I've been back home for a week now, although, truth be told--I feel like I'm living in two time zones; the only thing is the one I'm actually living in--not virtually living in --Brooklyn, not Tel Aviv--is completely safe from the war being fought now between Israel and Hezbollah. But still, it's hard to leave in the middle of the story and after a month in Israel, I had to leave in the middle. In going through my emails for July, I came across an email I sent, with much urgency, to an editor I was working for telling him to change my copy. I had just filed a story about the Israeli complacency toward events along Israel's southern border and in Gaza where Israel was bombing Hamas without much public Israeli attention, since most attention was focused on a brewing sexual scandal revolving around Israel's president (a second sex scandal--this one involving Israel's Justice Minister also recently hit the Israeli press)--when I walked into a store in Jerusalem where there was a television on reporting that two soldiers had been abducted on Israel's northern border. I knew what that meant and I emailed the urgency to my editor: everything had changed. Update the copy. But now, when I look back at that email, I can't believe that so much time has passed--and the questions arise: what happened? Is Israel losing? And what next?

First off, I don't think that Israel is losing the war. But still, Israel is not exactly winning. This may sound cliched, but with Israel fighting a fierce organization like Hezbollah--an extremely well organized, well-trained and well-financed and supplied (by Syria and Iran) terrorist fighting force, Israel, one of the great military powers in the world and I might add, one of the great high-tech and economic powers in the world today, finds itself facing an enemy who thrives among civilians, lives and shoots among civilians--and whose sole targets are civilians (Israelis). For Israel, the challenge has been to minimize its own civilian and war casualties while fighting against an enemy that they appear to have underestimated. I believe that Israel had no choice but to respond to the provocation by Hezbollah. That doesn't mean that I agree with every military move by Israel, but if Israel is to exist within internationally recognized borders and to live as a secure state, then it has a right to have those borders respected--and the fact remains that the northern border with Lebanon is an internationally recognized border. This war itself, though, has sparked an extremely interesting debate inside Israel regarding the values of the state and its future. I encourage tpmcafe readers to get a taste of this debate by looking on the Haaretz website and reading journalist Ari Shavit or on the Yediot Aharanot website (www.haaretz.com and www.ynetnews.com) to read Nahum Barnea, the most popular reporter/columnist in Israel. They are asking probing quesitons about Israel's preparedness and its future, which are critical to the reframing of the Zionist project.So, is Israel losing? No, I don't think so, but they are already bogged down in something that their military leaders seem not to have expected. And the question becomes, what is winning and a what cost, to both Israelis and to the Lebanese people and to the Middle East overall. As an American, watching this war unfold in real time was fascinating, if not also quite depressing. I was reminded of the first war with Iraq when the U.S. went in with air power, thinking that air power alone could win the war, and it was preferable for the U.S. because it minimized U.S. deaths, but as Israel has now painfully discovered, air power is not enough. There are graphic accounts in the Israeli newspapers these last few days of the sophisticated encampments that Israeli soldiers have found, dug by Hezollah inside Lebanon--and among civilian populations. What is a cave, one reporter writes, is not really a cave, but rather a sophisticated outpost for fighters armed with all sorts of equipment with which they are fighting back against Israel's military might. Another interesting comment from some soldiers in the Israeli papers points out that the Hezbollah fighters are better trained than the Palestinians against whom the Israelis have expended so much energy these past decades. It makes one wonder. If there is any opportunity now, it's to re-engage and push the Israelis and the Palestinians toward some sort of a negotiated agreement. As one Palestinian analyst told me when I met with him in Ramallah two weeks ago, the Hezbollah action is not in the name of the Palestinians; it is a distraction. It's time for the U.S. to be a real ally to Israel; solve the Israeli/Palestinian problem so that Israel can fight the real fights it faces. As we enter into the election season, it would be most helpful if those politicians who will talk about how much they support Israel do so by strongly, strongly suggesting that she resolve the Israeli-Palestinian situation, and move to a viable two-state solution. Israel has wasted too many decades, aided by the U.S., in not resolving that problem.