Late Night

post from Eschaton on 12 November 2006 11:44:00 PM. © Eschaton

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The Decemberists - O Valencia

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Open thread

post from AMERICAblog on 12 November 2006 11:41:00 PM. © AMERICAblog

Just did a little Christmas shopping on eBay tonight. Man that thing is an adrenaline rush. Got what I wanted, in the price range I wanted, but it took some fast typing at the end there.

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Open Thread and Diary Rescue

post from Daily Kos on 12 November 2006 11:28:12 PM. © Daily Kos

Diaries up for rescue tonight:

MissLaura's 204: Winning, Losing, and Working explores the exhausting, exhilaration and questioning that comes after working hard on a winning campaign ... and then asking, "What next?"

Morgan in Austin's So THIS is what infrastructure problems look like describes in painful detail what working off crappy phone lists in John Courage's campaign was like, and how the Democratic Party must pay attention to its downline infrastructure needs if it wants to win again.

hof1991's Leading indicators and trailing indicators discusses trail blazers in opinion and laggards, and how that affects the political process.

srkp23's Beyond Left Melancholy: Purism and Pragmatism muses on how we can move ahead as a party, balancing every-day political reality with deep idealism.

ManfromMiddletown's A Graphic Anatomy of Victory: New York provides maps and analysis that shows a blue state turning bluer in non-urban areas.

philinmaine's What to do in the off year, (Nuts & Bolts series) outlines what we can be doing in supposed non-election years to advance our causes.

dsteffen's A Boomer's Lament is a melancholic look at another time, the aging process and political fate.

8ackgro0und N015e's WaPo misses the forest for the trees (still) debunks political pundit myths in the aftermath of the election.

shirah's Science Sunday Fun: Remember the Ladies looks at woman and science, then and now.

dopper0189's My Keys to a Permanent Democratic Majority! offers points on how to secure and expand Democratic election gains in the nation, region by region.

benwaxman's PA-Sen: A Report from Rural Pennslyvania examines the issues and campaign of Casey, who won in the traditionally conservative areas of Pennsylvania.

aphra behn's History for Kossacks: Of Slaves and Serfs (Special Guest Edition) is a continuation of a series exploring slavery, this installment focusing on Rome, the Eastern Empire and Europe's system of feudalism.

MissLaura brings Top Comments of the Day.

Add your favorites from the past 24 hours and use as an open thread.

Note: I'll be computerless (sob!) Monday and Tuesday, so ct has agreed to post the diary rescue forwarded to him from the Rescue Rangers tomorrow and Tuesday evenings. Look for them under his byline. (And thanks, ct!)

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Late Nite FDL: Fetch Me My Ax!!

post from Firedoglake on 12 November 2006 11:23:50 PM. © Firedoglake

If there's one thing I try to encourage in my fellows, it's Liberal Rage. All those candy-asses on the Right were raising hell last year about those scary, UNHINGED, angry, angry liberal bloggers. You remember that? The[...]

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C&L Late Nite Music Club with Solomon Burke

post from Crooks and Liars on 12 November 2006 11:10:41 PM. © Crooks and Liars

Felt like a little blues tonight…If You Need MeYour mission…if you choose to accept it…is to link your favorite blues artist(s).

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About the War

post from Ezra Klein on 12 November 2006 11:00:00 PM. © Ezra Klein

(Posted by John.) Atrios seems to be far more worried the future of the war in Iraq than I am. Without disagreeing at all with his analysis of the present, I am, for whatever reason, more optimistic about the prospects...[...]

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Sympathies

post from Eschaton on 12 November 2006 10:21:00 PM. © Eschaton

This post by TPM Reader DK reminds me of the days when speculation about my identity ranged from Sidney Blumenthal to Some Gym Teacher. The latter was closer to the truth, but the former type of speculation was based on the prejudice that anyone with something to contribute to the discourse must be some sort of insider. Not so.

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Bush approval is at 31%. Americans think his
presidency is over.

post from AMERICAblog on 12 November 2006 10:18:00 PM. © AMERICAblog

Americans don't like the President anymore. Really, really don't like him. And, most Americans think his presidency is history:

President Bush?s job approval rating has fallen to just 31 percent, according to the new NEWSWEEK Poll. Bill Clinton?s lowest rating during his presidency was 36 percent; Bush?s father?s was 29 percent, and Ronald Reagan?s was 35 percent. Jimmy Carter?s and Richard Nixon?s lows were 28 and 23 percent, respectively. (Just 24 approve of outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld?s job performance; and 31 percent approve of Vice President Dick Cheney?s.)

Worst of all, most Americans are writing off the rest of Bush?s presidency; two-thirds (66 percent) believe he will be unable to get much done, up from 56 percent in a mid-October poll; only 32 percent believe he can be effective. That?s unfortunate since 63 percent of Americans say they?re dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country; just 29 percent are satisfied, reports the poll of 1,006 adults conducted Thursday and Friday nights.

Unfortunately, we've got two more years of the clown. Fortunately, Congress is controlled by the Democrats so he can be reined in.

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A Tale of Two Cities

I could start this post with those famous lines from Charles Dickens’ novel, but most of you know them already plus I have a feeling we are going to be hearing them a lot over the next two years. In this case the two cities are Baghdad and New Orleans. More than [...]

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More On Iraq

With Democrats calling for a phased redeployment of troops, expect the most stubborn of war supporters to become more shrill as they contend that any drawdown of troops from Iraq would constitute "failure." Well, this is what failure looks like:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Baghdad's morgues are full.
With no space to store bodies, some victims of the sectarian slaughter are not being kept for relatives to claim, but photographed, numbered and quickly interred in government cemeteries.
Men fearful of an anonymous burial are tattooing their thighs with names and phone numbers.
In October, a particularly bloody month for Iraqi civilians, about 1,600 bodies were turned in at the Baghdad central morgue, said its director, Dr. Abdul-Razaq al-Obaidi.

At least 169 Iraqis were killed or found dead today. As our government's own NIE concluded, Iraq is a "failed state." The old Iraq, that ideal of a liberated nation that would quickly be rebuilt and that would throw flowers at our feet, that Iraq is long gone. The new Iraq, the one borne out of our own incompetence and a long history of internal conflict, that Iraq requires a fresh approach to stop our bloodshed and to curb the Iraqi bloodshed as well.

Tomorrow, our government will take one step towards at least discussing a new approach as the president will be meeting with the Iraq Study Group.