When the CHIPs are Down

post from The Liberal Journal on 25 September 2007 06:36:00 AM. © The Liberal Journal

This graph comes courtesy of Jesus' General:

Read The Full Article:
http://liberaljournal.blogspot.com/2007/09/when-chips-are-down.html

Digg this

Hillary’s Supporters on Vacation,
Giuliani’s Celebrate 9/11

post from All Spin Zone on 25 September 2007 06:30:00 AM. © All Spin Zone

Hillary's excuse for not raising as much money as Obama during the third quarter is that her supporters take vacation during the summer. Meanwhile, Giuliani is raising campaign dollars $9.11 at a time.

Read The Full Article:
http://allspinzone.com/wp/2007/09/25/hillarys-supporters-on-vacation-giulianis-ce
lebrate-911/

Digg this

Petraeus' funny numbers

post from AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth on 25 September 2007 05:51:00 AM. © AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

From the Wash Post:

Civilian casualty numbers in the Pentagon's latest quarterly report on Iraq last week, for example, differ significantly from those presented by the top commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, in his recent congressional testimony. Petraeus's chart was limited to numbers of dead, while the Pentagon combined the numbers of dead and wounded -- a figure that should be greater. Yet Petraeus's numbers were higher than the Pentagon's for the months preceding this year's increase of U.S. troops to Iraq, and lower since U.S. operations escalated this summer.

The charts are difficult to compare: Petraeus used monthly figures on a line graph, while the Pentagon computed "Average Daily Casualties" on a bar chart, and neither included actual numbers. But the numerical differences are still stark, and the reasons offered can be hard to parse. The Pentagon, in a written clarification, said that "Gen. Petraeus reported civilian deaths based on incidents reported by Coalition forces plus Iraqi government data. The [Pentagon] report only includes incidents reported by Coalition forces for civilian causality data."

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Americablog/~3/161078764/petraeus-funny-numbers.ht
ml

Digg this

A Tale of Two Narratives

post from MyDD on 25 September 2007 05:49:21 AM. © MyDD

The Sunday talk shows were dominated, of course, by Hillary Clinton who appeared on no fewer than 5 shows, several of which followed her interview with a panel discussion, during which Clinton won universally rave reviews: Bob Scheiffer, Face The[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mydd/~3/160989528/0163

Digg this

Opening The Files: 09/25/07

post from All Spin Zone on 25 September 2007 05:34:00 AM. © All Spin Zone

When it comes to the Right vs. Ahmadinejad, it's hard to tell who got schooled more.

Read The Full Article:
http://allspinzone.com/wp/2007/09/25/opening-the-files-092507/

Digg this

Tuesday Open Thread

post from My Left Wing - Front Page on 25 September 2007 05:15:00 AM. © My Left Wing - Front Page

"If we in America have reached that point in our desperate culture
when we must murder children, no matter for what reason or
what color, we don't deserve to survive, and probably won't."

William Faulkner
September 25, 1897 - July 6, 1962

Read The Full Article:
http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=18957

Digg this

REPUBLICAN REP: "ALASKA'S NAME IS MUD"-- SO WHAT
WOULD THAT MAKE TED STEVENS

post from DownWithTyranny! on 25 September 2007 05:13:00 AM. © DownWithTyranny!

Ted Stevens (R-AK): nice collar but, crooked is as crooked does
The wheels of justice sometimes grind very, very slowly-- so wonderers are wondering how long it will take before uber-corrupt Alaska Senator Ted Stevens to be indicted on bribery charges. Stevens has been a reliable tool for the Bush Regime and a dependable rubber stamp-- but nonetheless far right extremists have never been delighted with him. His grotesque avarice-- think "Bridge to Nowhere"-- and his rampant criminality and unbelievable greed makes the whole GOP look like a vast criminal enterprise. So, according to yesterday's Moonie Times, the wingnuts at the Club For Growth are pushing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to challenge the vulnerable Stevens in the Republican primary. A poll, taken even before it was revealed that the FBI had taped conversations of the senator discussing bribes, showed that Palin would beat him 56-32%.

Coincidentally, on Friday Palin publicly asked Stevens to level with Alaskans about the charges against him.

"Right now, Alaskans aren't hearing anything," Palin said, adding that she and many of the state's residents are willing to give Stevens more leeway than most people because of the Republican senator's long service to Alaska.

"But not hearing anything in terms of information that can be shared regarding the senator's innocence is kind of frustrating for Alaskans," Palin said in a telephone interview from Anchorage. "Alaskans are getting more anxious to hear any information that he can provide regarding his innocence."

Palin first expressed her concerns Thursday to a reporter with National Public Radio, who spoke to her after she dropped in on the federal corruption trial of former state Rep. Pete Kott. Among the trial's bigger revelations was testimony from former Veco chairman Bill Allen that he or his oil services company financed a substantial portion of the 2000 remodeling of Stevens' Girdwood home.

Palin's remarks took on greater significance when The Associated Press reported later Thursday that Allen agreed to secretly tape telephone calls with Stevens after authorities confronted the Veco executive with evidence that he had bribed Alaska lawmakers. The Washington Post on Friday confirmed the existence of the taped phone calls between Stevens and Allen. It's not clear what was said during the calls, or how many were recorded.

Stevens still has one comment only: "No comment." Although Friday a CNN reporter finally got him to open up a little after staking out his Capitol Hill office and asking him about the wiretap from his once close ally and alleged briber. "It's a nice day," was all Stevens would say in response to the questions. "I hope you're enjoying it. I'm having a great day."

It isn't what Palin wants to hear who thinks all the corruption is seriously hurting the state. "I think people are just kind of asking about the commitment that Alaskans have to change the political climate up here to a climate where (residents) can trust that the decisions the state government is making are based on the best interest of Alaskans, not due to undue influence." Rep. John Coghill (R-North Pole) added, "Alaska's name is mud right now."

And the first substantive test of Stevens' plummeting popularity comes next week-- in local elections in Ketchikan, where Greg Vickery director of the Tongass Conservation Society is a candidate for the Borough Assembly and is campaigning against Stevens. Vickery's beef is that Stevens took bribes from VECO in return for his influence in directing an Arctic exploration contract for the National Science Foundation to the company-- which has been a financial mainstay of the Alaska GOP and has lined the pockets of Stevens, his family and his cronies (including Alaska's sole House member, Don Young).

Mud of worse, Alaska Republican politics is a swamp that severely needs a major overhaul. It's time for the Stevens clan and Young to be retired from the public sector and start preparing for what looks like lengthy legal battles.

Read The Full Article:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/09/republican-rep-alaskas-name-is-mud-so
.html

Digg this

Clinton Hardball

Read The Full Article:
http://ajliebling.blogspot.com/2007/09/clinton-hardball.html

Digg this

CA-04 Letter writer is tried of partisanship

Letter to the editor in the Auburn Journal:

GOP seems to focus only on protecting its majority

The letter, Journal, Sept. 15, from the writer who "had to hold his nose" when he last voted for John Doolittle raised the concern that the pull of partisan loyalty can lead to supporting a flawed candidate.

Is protecting the party's power now so much an end in itself that it overrides personal judgment about the competence and integrity of the candidates under the party's umbrella?

What if the nose-holding voter and enough others like him had trusted their judgment last November? District Four might have voted itself out from under Doolittle's shadow, paving the way for bipartisan debates more truly reflecting ever-changing political realities.

Polls show that Doolittle's seat is now vulnerable, for the first time, in spite of the district's gerrymandered Republican majority. Three candidates [Holmes, Gaines, Egland] may challenge him in the primary, all claiming only that their mission is to preserve the district as a Republican stronghold.

But is preserving party power a worthy enough platform? What about all those pressing issues within the district, state and nation that demand consensus and negotiation?

Voters must hold these candidates to a higher cause than simply rescuing the torch from John Doolittle's failing hands, yet that is the only platform any of them have proposed so far.

Sherrill Brooks, Grass Valley

Read The Full Article:
http://solongjohn.blogspot.com/2007/09/ca-04-letter-writer-is-tried-of.html

Digg this