The Biggest Lie Of The Presidential Campaign: The
Surge Has Worked

post from DownWithTyranny! on 07 August 2008 06:00:00 AM. © DownWithTyranny!

This four and a half minute video was made by an Iraqi journalist in Baghdad. "Five years of war... and we live like this?... Tell the world. I want the world to know, to see how we live here." This doesn't look like the part of Baghdad where Lindsey Graham skips in and gets his swell bargains on some cute little rugs; it's the part of Baghdad where Iraqis live... and die. "In my 3 weeks back home in Baghdad 179 people were killed and no Baghdadi ever mentioned the surge to me." But why should they? That's just for domestic audiences here in America.

I just heard Tony Fratto -- last seen lying about the forged CIA letter making the case for war-- saying on CNN that Iraq doesn't have to pay back any of the rebuilding costs, despite the tens of billions of dollars they made this year in windfall oil profits. Why not? Because we'll have a long term ally, he said... to stand with us in this dangerous part of the world. I wonder what they're smoking in the White House basement these days. Same thing they're smoking on the Double Talk Express.

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Muse in the Morning

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 07 August 2008 06:00:00 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Muse in the MorningIn this worldHate never yet dispelled hate.Only love dispels hate.This is the law,Ancient and inexhaustible.--The DhammapadaPhenomena XV: LoveTransitionConundraFear is strongDoes hatredmake anyonestronger?We come inall degreesof[...]

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National Democrats Drop Ad Buy

post from Boyda Bloc on 07 August 2008 05:32:00 AM. © Boyda Bloc

Again, from the Topeka Capital-Journal, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has dropped plans for a $1.2 million ad by in the Kansas 2nd District.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Bodya, D-Kan., said today the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee complied with her request to withdraw plans for $1.2 million in campaign commercials in her district.
She expressed concern recently the influx of independent advertising in her 2nd District campaign against Republican Lynn Jenkins might too heavily influence the outcome.

"This is terrific news for anyone who believes that Kansas voters should control Kansas campaigns," Boyda said. "By canceling their ads, the DCCC has given Kansas the chance to run our election without Washington interference."

We're proud of Boyda for standing by her guns on this issue- and we'll echo the challenge she laid down for Lynn Jenkins:

"I hope my opponent will join me to demand that these out-of-state groups keep out of Kansas," Boyda said. "Together, we can make this a different kind of campaign: a Kansas campaign, free of the Washington special interests."

Who wants to beat Lynn Jenkins doesn't have the balls to stand up to conservative outside groups and tell them "no meddling" in this election?

Oh, and on another note- the DCCC wouldn't have ever agreed to drop the buy unless they were confident the money wasn't needed- either because they decided Boyda had enough of her own cash, or that her opponent wasn't strong enough to muster a real challenge. Either way, the DCCC's decision is a positve one for Boyda. However, don't be surprised if they go up on air with ads later on- particularly if Jenkins doesn't reign in right wing wacko groups on her side.

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FREE Performances

post from Hick With A Master's Degree on 07 August 2008 05:22:00 AM. © Hick With A Master's Degree

See my previous post for links to the Nexus Project at Next Stage, on Capitol Hill in Seattle. Check the schedule and plan to see all of these terrific plays. Then vote for your favorite. The prize goes to the charity or organization that inspired the play.

If you can buy a ticket, that's great. If you can make a donation, that's great too.

There will be TWO FREE PERFORMANCES of the entire show, on Saturday August 16th and Sunday August 17th. You can't beat that.

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http://hickwithmasters.blogspot.com/2008/08/free-performances.html

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Wash Post: "Obama Hits Back, Too Softly For Some"

post from AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth on 07 August 2008 05:08:00 AM. © AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth

Interesting article in today's Washington Post. It encapsulates the angst many Democrats are starting to feel about the election, McCain's increasingly negative attacks, and the Obama campaign's responses to those attacks. Democrats we talk to are worried. They're not just the chattering class on TV. It's Democrats across the board. They're worried because they want Obama to win, but more generally, they want our party to win. This election is about far more than Barack Obama. It's about Democrats taking back the White House, taking back our country. All Democrats share ownership of that goal.

Here are a few of the key points in the article, and my thoughts:

1. "We are not going to base our campaign on the concerns of so-called campaign strategists on cable TV," spokesman Bill Burton said.

In fact, lots of Democrats are expressing concern, including senior Hill staff, senior consultants, senior activists, and more.

2. "The price [McCain] paid for his party's nomination has been to reverse himself on position after position," Obama told a crowd of more than 1,000 at a high school gym in Elkhart. "That doesn't meet my definition of a maverick. You can't be a maverick when politically it's important for you but not a maverick when it doesn't work for you."

This is great, seriously. Hit McCain on his strength, his "maverick" status. Guaranteed to tick him off.

3. [Y]ou have to counterattack. You don't want to look like a whiner. You want to look tough."

This is a point I've raised several times. I think John Kerry and Al Gore paid a high price for being intellectual pretty-boys who didn't show enough of a tough-guy side (interestingly, I think Wesley Clark has the same PR problem - way too nice of a guy on TV, and never shows his inner general). The public knows Obama is smart and good looking, now they need to know that he can be an asshole too.

4. [M]ost of the independent groups that would have taken the lead in such an independent campaign have been sidelined by Obama's insistence that Democratic donors channel their money to him, rather than outside groups.... But the surrogate groups remain dormant, Brazile said, because of Obama's decision to cut them out.

True.

5. So far, said Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org's executive director, the best response to McCain's celebrity attack has come from Paris Hilton herself, who released her own ad Tuesday calling McCain "the oldest celebrity in the world, like super old."

Joe has complained about this, as have others.

6. Nearly half of respondents -- including 51 percent of independents -- said they have been hearing too much about Obama lately, and 22 percent said all that news has made them feel less favorable toward him.

Well that's just dumb. Half say they've been hearing too much about Obama. What percentage of the population votes Republican in presidential elections of late? Half. Regardless, how many people said that all this news about Obama is actually making them like him less? A whopping 22%. That means that for 78%, the non-stop Obama news is either having a positive effect or no effect at all. So why is this a problem that only 22% of people are being turned off?

7. Because Obama opted out of public financing and the spending limits that come with it, he will be free to swamp McCain with television spots in the fall. If he needs to become more negative at that point, he can -- knowing that McCain would be hard pressed to reply. .

With only 3 months to go to election day, I would disagree with this. Once (if) McCain successfully paints Obama as [insert smear here], it's going to be very difficult to crawl out of that hole with only weeks to go.

8. Obama spokesman Burton said the campaign sees no reason to shift strategy. "This is a classic Washington story, anonymous quotes from armchair quarterbacks with no sense of our strategy, data or plan," he said.

Actually, from friends who have worked on elections for years, I hear that the rumblings of Democratic discontent we're hearing are not normal at all. As for Democrats on the Hill, in the private sector (consulting and media), and in the activist class (online and off) having no sense of Obama's strategy, data or plan, isn't that the problem? If Obama's political allies were truly integrated into a coordinated and comprehensive campaign strategy, they'd know this stuff and wouldn't be worried.

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-too-softly.html

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Lied Into Iraq War - More Evidence Emerges

post from The Osterley Times on 07 August 2008 05:08:00 AM. © The Osterley Times

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The Young Turks sum it up perfectly. There can be no doubt any longer that the Bush regime lied to convince the US to go to war against Iraq and they even had the CIA forge letters to justify their case.

Am I surprised? Not a bit of it. But it is important that history records what they did, even if Pelosi won't impeach them for it.

I notice Suskind, in an interview with Keith Olbermann, states that this is why they went so hard after Joe Wilson and outed his wife. They were actually scared that people would discover what Habbush, the man who appeared as a wanted person on their little pack of cards - and who they retired with a five million dollar payoff - told them before the war. There were no WMD.

Tags: Young Turks, Iraq war, Suskind, CIA, forged letter, Habbush

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http://the-osterley-times.blogspot.com/2008/08/lied-into-iraq-war-more-evidence.h
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Opening John Edwards' Back Door

post from Connecting.the.Dots on 07 August 2008 05:02:00 AM. © Connecting.the.Dots

Like nature, scandal abhors a vacuum. Ignored by the MSM for weeks, the John Edwards illegitimate child story is oozing into sight with debate over his role at the Democratic convention.

"If there is not an explanation that?s satisfactory, acceptable and meets high moral standards...he would not be a prime candidate to make a major address to the convention," Don Fowler, a former Democratic National Committee chair, tells the Charlotte Observer.

"He absolutely does have to (resolve it). If it's not true, he has to issue a stronger denial," says a Democratic strategist who ran Edwards? 1998 Senate race. "It's a very damaging thing.

"The big media has tried to be responsible and handle this with kid gloves, but it's clearly getting ready to bust out. If it's not true, he's got to stand up and say, 'This is not true. That is not my child and I'm going to take legal action against the people who are spreading these lies.' It's not enough to say, 'That?s tabloid trash.'"

No, it isn't and Edwards' continuing silence, while understandable on the personal level, does not bode well for his reputation and any future role on the national political stage.

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http://ajliebling.blogspot.com/2008/08/opening-john-edwards-back-door.html

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Meanwhile, in the other war

Afghanistan, another legacy of George Bush's incompetence.[...]

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http://firedoglake.com/2008/08/07/meanwhile-in-the-other-war-2/

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Frustrated With TV Ads Run Your Own for $6.

Get FISA Right (GFR), the internet based activist group begun on mybarackobama.com to alter Sen.[...]

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A deadly milestone is surpasssed in a war that
was almost forgotten

post from AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth on 07 August 2008 04:10:00 AM. © AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth

The death toll for U.S. troops in Afghanistan has surpassed 500. This war was largely forgotten by the Bush/Cheney regime as they rushed to invade Iraq. But, if my memory serves me, it was Afghanistan that housed and supported the terrorists who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. George Bush will leave office without finishing the job, but many Americans made the ultimate sacrifice trying to do the job. The New York Times has the report and the faces of those who died serving in Afghanistan:

Not long after Staff Sgt. Matthew D. Blaskowski was killed by a sniper?s bullet last Sept. 23 in eastern Afghanistan, his mother received an e-mail message with a link to a video on the Internet. A television reporter happened to have been filming a story at Sergeant Blaskowski?s small mountain outpost when it came under fire and the sergeant was shot.

Since then, Sergeant Blaskowski?s parents, Cheryl and Terry Blaskowski of Cheboygan, Mich., have watched their 27-year-old son die over and over. Ms. Blaskowski has taken breaks from work to watch it on her computer, sometimes several times a day, studying her son?s last movements.

?Anything to be closer,? she said. ?To see what could have been different, how it ? ? the bullet ? ?happened to find him.?

For months, the Blaskowskis felt alone in watching their son die in an isolated and nearly forgotten war. And then, in June, the war in Afghanistan roared back into public view when American deaths from hostilities exceeded those in Iraq. In the face of an expanding threat from the Taliban, the conflict is becoming deadlier and much more violent for American troops, who three weeks ago reached their highest deployment levels ever, at 36,000.

June was the second deadliest month for the military in Afghanistan since the war began, with 23 American deaths from hostilities, compared with 22 in Iraq. July was less deadly, with 20 deaths, compared with six in Iraq. On July 22, nearly seven years after the conflict began on Oct. 7, 2001, the United States lost its 500th soldier in the Afghanistan war.

(The Pentagon says that 563 American service members have died in Operation Enduring Freedom, the umbrella term for the global American-led antiterror campaign that has the Afghanistan war at its center and includes deployments in the Philippines and Africa. Of those deaths, according to an analysis by The New York Times, 510 have occurred in Afghanistan or are directly linked to the war there.)

It will take a new president to finish this war in Afghanistan. John McCain joined the rush to ignore Afghanistan by invading Iraq. Seven years later, it's still far from over and U.S. soldiers continue to die.