NYT claims ‘anti-war activists’
protest military funerals.

post from Think Progress on 22 August 2007 02:08:00 PM. © Think Progress

Editor and Publisher reports:

In a report [yesterday] on Sen. Barack Obama’s appearance this week at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City, New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleney took a decidedly wrong turn in referring to one statement.
Zeleney wrote that Obama “said it was wrong for anti-war activists to protest at military funerals, declaring: ‘It needs to stop’.”
The quote at the end was accurate but nowhere did Obama refer to the protesters as “anti-war activists.” In fact, the protesters who have caused much outrage have been anti-gay activists.

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On Special Report, Hume told the truth
on warrantless wiretaps, then corrected himself

post from Media Matters for America on 22 August 2007 02:07:25 PM. © Media Matters for America

On the August 20 edition of Fox News' Special Report, host Brit Hume reported: "The Senate Judiciary Committee's latest deadline for the White House to comply with its subpoena for documents relating to warrantless -- allegedly warrantless wiretaps has come and gone." Contrary to Hume's assertion that the administration has only "allegedly" engaged in warrantless wiretapping, administration officials have admitted that the National Security Agency has engaged in warrantless[...]

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Mission Accomplished Written on the Wall

post from The Liberal Journal on 22 August 2007 02:07:01 PM. © The Liberal Journal

According to Sen. Levin, the surge has been a success. Bush must have been right, and us wrong.

From the Washington Slimes:

Top Senate Democrats have started to acknowledge progress in Iraq, with the chairman of the Armed Services Committee yesterday saying the U.S. troop surge is producing "measurable results.?

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan highlighted improved security in Baghdad and al Qaeda losses in Anbar province as examples of success ? a shift for Democrats who have mainly discounted or ignored advances on the battlefield for weeks.

"The military aspects of President Bush's new strategy in Iraq ... appear to have produced some credible and positive results," Mr. Levin said in a joint statement with Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican, after a two-day visit last week to Iraq.

Mr. Levin joins a growing chorus of Democrats ? including 2008 presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin of Illinois ? who say the troop surge has produced benefits, but who also bemoan failures of the fledgling Iraqi government they have repeatedly criticized for taking an August vacation.

The Democrats' reframing of the war debate helps them avoid criticism for naysaying U.S. military achievements while still advocating a speedy pullout from what they say is a civil war the Iraqi government cannot quell.

"It's working," Mrs. Clinton said of the troop surge yesterday in a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Kansas City, Mo., a group at odds with her votes for a pullout and against emergency troop funding.

But Mrs. Clinton told the roughly 5,000 veterans that the new strategy came "too late" in the four-year-old war and it is time to bring U.S. troops home.

"I do not think the Iraqis are ready to do what they have to do for themselves yet," she said. "I think it is unacceptable for our troops to be caught in the crossfire of a sectarian civil war while the Iraqi government is on vacation."

Everybody Hates Nouri

Of course, this is one day after Democratic Sen. Carl Levin blamed Iraqi PM al-Maliki for all of Iraq?s problems and calling for his ouster, ?I hope the parliament will vote the Maliki government out of office.? (Hey, Carl, here?s an idea?I hope the Congress will impeach Bush and Cheney out of office). This position seemingly conflicts with the Bush Administration who continues to support Maliki. But Levin?s criticism actually gives cover to the Administration.

With Congress? ratings at an all time low, one of two things need to take place: either declare victory or declare a pullout. They haven?t done the latter and never will. (Yes, I?ve given up hope). It?s so much easier to do the former. They have the cover now to pull it off, and blame everything else on Nouri.

The Cover

Have you noticed the dearth of news coverage in Iraq recently? Besides the massive bombing which killed 500 in Northern Iraq (part of the success), have you heard a news story about Iraq in the last month that you can remember (and not the Daily Show reporting from Iraq, either)?

The mainstream media and the major news outlets have been quiet, instead giving us minute-by-minute coverage of Hurricane Dean, the least deadly Deadliest Hurricane Ever.

News from Iraq isn?t good, and probably not good for ratings (or, if you?re Rupert Murdoch, propaganda). CNN and MSNBC probably ran a few focus groups and found Americans were tired of hearing about the war we weren?t winning. So now we are hearing that things are better in what has become the War That Wasn?t.

This sets the stage for the limp dick Democrats to join hands with the Republicans, all desperate to pounce on any piece of good news.

Now, when the surely unbiased White House, I mean, Petraeus report gets released on the anniversary of Sept. 11th, it will be like one big circle. There?s a monumental amount of symbolism there, manipulating such being what the Republicans do best.

What will be the next step? The plan the Republicans have been looking to implement all along. Declare victory, but keep the bases there, then turn the missiles on Iran. The subliminal message being, We are America, we are always victorious sooner or later.

But there?s one small detail that Levin and Clinton and the Rethuglicans will most certainly ignore?this has been the deadliest summer for U.S. troops since the war began.

Even deadlier than Hurricane Dean, can you believe it? And technically, the summer isn?t over. Perhaps the surge was supposed to be painted as a success. A well-constructed media effort may give Bush enough ?life? (or should I say ?political capital?) to rally the warmongers in Congress around a confrontation with the Iranians.

More blog discussion at Memeorandum here and here.

UPDATE: The Gun Toting Liberal says, "When...the Democrats themselves start mouthing off about how great President Bush?s ?Surge? is working, I think that qualifies as a major ?screw up?, does it not? Welcome back, Republicans?:

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Realism

post from Ezra Klein on 22 August 2007 02:02:00 PM. © Ezra Klein

by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math Via Steve Clemons, Nir Rosen seems to have it right: First of all, the Iraqi government doesn't matter. Changing the names that go alongside titles in the Iraqi government will do very little, since...[...]

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http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/realism.html

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After Bush flip-flops on Maliki, he says to Bush:
We "can find friends elsewhere"

post from AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth on 22 August 2007 01:59:00 PM. © AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

Bush flip-flopped on his support for the Iraqi Prime Minister. Yesterday, Bush was over Maliki, But today, Bush likes him again. Tomorrow, who knows? But, Maliki doesn't seem to think that Bush and the U.S. matter all that much:

"No one has the right to place timetables on the Iraq government. It was elected by its people," he said at the end of a three-day visit to Damascus, according to the Associated Press. "Those who make such statements are bothered by our visit to Syria. We will pay no attention. We care for our people and our constitution and can find friends elsewhere." Maliki said.

Maliki has no problem dissing Bush. He knows that part of Bush's latest political strategy is to blame the Iraqis for all the problems in the country. And, Maliki and the Iraqis are not taking it.

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maliki-he-says.html

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Gallup Rates Rove's Rant

post from Connecting.the.Dots on 22 August 2007 01:57:00 PM. © Connecting.the.Dots

The ?architect? spent his farewell weekend on TV repeating with glee that Hillary Clinton was unelectable in ?08 because of her unprecedented high negative ratings in the polls. Today the Gallup Poll people responded.

In the usual long-winded, cautious verbiage of pollsters, the answer is that Rove is full of it. Among others, his own creation, George W. Bush, proves the point:

?A review of Gallup poll data suggests that Hillary Clinton's current high unfavorable ratings are not unprecedented. Other candidates have had similarly high unfavorable ratings at various points in presidential election campaigns in previous years. Two of these candidates--George W. Bush in 2004 and Bill Clinton in 1992 --went on to win the election.

?Additionally, Rove's assumptions that Hillary Clinton's candidacy is ?fatally flawed? run counter to the historical finding that candidates' images often change, sometimes dramatically, as the campaign progresses. In other words, Clinton's ultimate electability will likely be determined more by what happens in the next 15 months while she campaigns than by what Americans think of her now.?

There is only one ?fatally flawed? figure in all this, and he?s going back to Texas at the end of the month.

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http://ajliebling.blogspot.com/2007/08/gallup-rates-roves-rant.html

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Embracing Vietnam

post from Daily Kos on 22 August 2007 01:54:03 PM. © Daily Kos

In the middle of Iraq's bloodiest summer yet, on a day that brings the news of the deaths of 14 U.S. soldiers and at least 20 Iraqis are dead in yet another attack on a police stattion, Bush goes Nixon on us. It's a strange tactic for selling the continued occupation of Iraq--evoking the second worst geopolitical and strategic blunder of modern times.

One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of Americas withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like "boat people," "re-education camps," and "killing fields."

(Just an aside, for the sake of historical accuracy. As Josh points out: the killing fields were in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, not in Vietnam, and actually that genocide ended when the Communist Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979 and overthrew the Khmer Rouge. History is complicated.)

There certainly are parallels to Vietnam in this debacle--first, they're both debacles, or perhaps I should say quagmires. Both were started on the most specious of reasons (though, at least in Vietnam, there was an underlying ideological reason--one that proved to be wrongheaded, but there was at least arguably a threat behind the domino theory). And both have proven to be disasters at home--politically divisive, economically ruinous, and leaving a legacy of broken and demoralized veterans--veterans who deserve far more than they get from their government when they return home.

That's what the vast majority of American people are going to remember when they remember Vietnam. It's a strange way to market the lastest quagmire.

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US Amputee Cyclist Raises Money for Iraqis

An amputee cyclist has just finished the first stretch of his around-the-world trek to raise money for landmine victims, part of which is designated for the Iraq Prosthetic Center in Basra to treat amputees in southern Iraq.

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http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/4035

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Carlson questioned servicemen's op-ed on Iraq
war, but not Pollack's views

On the August 20 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, host Tucker Carlson discussed an August 19 New York Times op-ed written by seven members of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division -- which asserted that "[t]he claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework." Carlson, who admitted to being "a little bit uncomfortable" with the servicemen's decision to write the op-ed, stated: "I wonder if weighing[...]

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http://mediamatters.org/items/rss/200708220005

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OR-SEN: Polling Smith--the Good, the Skewed and
the Pointless

Bumped from the diaries -- Jonathan... I've asked TJ from Loaded Orygun to make some sense of the latest polling out of the Oregon Senate race. Great analysis as always. Wow, the new Survey USA polling is out, and Gordon Smith has dropped to 46%[...]

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