Take them home

Lincoln was haunted by the Civil War and the death and bloodshed that he couldn't bring to an end. One has only to see how he aged in the five years he served as president to see the enormous burden he carried.

At least he didn't deliberately start the war that broke out shortly after he took office. In Lincoln's first inaugural address, he all but begged the South to reconsider withdrawing from the Union; it was the Confederacy that fired on Fort Sumter, kicking off four years of carnage.

Not so with Bush and the war in Iraq.

I am haunted by the deaths that have occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan: our trusting soldiers who were deployed to Iraq, believing in our government and that the cause was true... and the millions of civilians who have been killed as a consequence of our invasion.

There is also the issue of the Bush Administration's horrific mismanagement of the search for Bin Laden in Afghanistan. Because... the entire reason for going into Afghanistan was supposed to have been to find Osama Bin Laden.

Eight years later -- where is he? We have no idea.

There are still many questions surrounding the death of Pat Tillman. All we know is that he died by friendly fire, and that the Bush Administration covered this up, lying even to his family. I think of Pat every day as the Super Bowl draws near, and his beloved Cardinals prepare to take the grand stage.

Pat should be here.

As with the veterans of Vietnam, Iraq war vets will likely live with the knowledge that the war in which they fought never should have been waged. I have known many Vietnam vets over the course of my lifetime -- it has been a very bitter pill to swallow.

Even more bitter is the pill left for the families of those who never returned. I'm sure a day will not go by that they will not wonder why their son or daughter died... if not because of WMDs and not because of 9/11. Was it truly only for oil?

All of this is on George W. Bush's head, and there it will remain. But the pain will go on, even now that he is out of office.

Would that we all - people and representatives together - had seen through the Bush madness and stopped this war dead in its tracks. All of us who lived through and remember Vietnam should have stopped this from ever happening. Surely if we were able to pull together in a massive electoral uprising to elect Barack Obama, we could have done something...

I guess we woke up from our fitful sleep a little too late.



Starlight, by the Wailin' Jennys

I have come back to you broken
take me home
And my body bears this trouble
take me home
Take me back to my beginning
Before the hell of night set in
And I came to this border
take me home



I have toured the endless starlight
take me home
I have shattered under midnight
take me home
There are no vultures in this clearing
Except the ones who brought me here
And I'll no longer feed them
take me home



Kingdom come, their will was done
And now the earth is far away
from any kind of heaven
Hallowed be these frozen fields
And every single one of us
still left in want of mercy
Take us home



Now the bells stand still and hollow
take me home
And no one has come to mourn me
take me home
Find me where I close my eyes
Beneath this sky of powerlines
And let me see us clearly
take me home



Kingdom come, their will was done
And now the earth is far away
from any kind of heaven
Hallowed be these frozen fields
And every single one of us
Still left in want of mercy
Take us home...

Keith Olbermann Special Comment: Bush (8 years, 8 minutes)

How did we survive this?

Many people didn't. May they rest in peace.

And may we finally have learned something from all of this nightmare and chaos. Pay attention.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

People in glass houses...

This is getting ridiculous.

McCain and Palin's insistence on running an entire campaign based on personal attacks against their opponent, Barack Obama - while having no real and substantial platform of their own - is about to backfire in technicolor. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. This is especially true of politicians with - actual - ties to terrorists.

McCain and Palin have been insisting 24/7 that Ayers (now a professor with many connections in both the Democratic and Republican parties) is still a 'terrorist,' and that Obama is 'palling around with him.' This is a ridiculous claim in and of itself, because Obama barely knows the man - Ayers certainly isn't a part of Obama's campaign - and Ayers is by no means the same guy he was in the 1960s. Apparently this is the only cover McCain and Palin can find for the fact that they have no real platform; no real plan for how to lead this country out of its current economic woes.

And so the lady pitbull does the only thing she knows: she attacks. Unfortunately, she chose the wrong bait. It turns out that she herself has some rather dark skeletons in her closet - skeletons that might easily be construed as terrorist in nature.

The latest fauxpas from the McCain campaign came to light today, when it was announced that McCain has chosen lobbyist William Timmons to head his transition team (and after all of his talk about how he was going to run the lobbyists out of Washington. Might want to start with your own campaign, eh John?) Timmons isn't just any lobbyist: he lobbyed on behalf of Saddam Hussein (yes, the REAL Hussein) in attempts to ease sanctions against his regime.

Now... want to tell me again who is actually 'palling around with terrorists' here? Imagine for a moment that you are running for president, and the best guy you can find to head up your transition team is not only a lobbyist, but a lobbyist for Saddam Hussein. The comedians are going to have a field day with this.

Even more damning to the McCain campaign are Sarah Palin's ties to an Alaskan pro-secessionist group called AIP. Todd Palin was a full member, and Sarah Palin has maintained close ties with this very fringe, very radical American-government-hating group. She even gave the opening speech for 2008 AIP convention (from the governor's mansion) and stated that she 'shared their party's vision.' She also attended the convention herself in 2006.

So obviously Palin has been... palling around with secessionists? Not just secessionists, but a group that freely admits to hating our government. Great choice for VP, McCain. You've really lost it.

Lincoln is rolling in his grave. Again.



CNN is finally covering this story... but I find it amazing that McCain and Palin had the nerve to even mention 'terrorist' when they each had so very much to hide. Did they somehow think we wouldn't find out?




And now the McCain campaign is expressing its outrage (that this is being covered on CNN) and insisting that Palin is being smeared. Smeared by the truth, eh?

Funny how they can smear Obama night and day with statements that are patently untrue, and all the while stirring up racial hatreds; but pull a few unsavory truths out of their own closets and they run screaming 'UNFAIR! UNFAIR!' and stomping their feet in outrage.

I just can't take these people seriously. And I certainly wouldn't entrust our nation's future to them. Much too unstable, and frankly unhinged.

(Glass houses are a bitch to keep intact, aren't they?)

Jon Stewart: Dive of Death

Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - Dive of Death



Absolutely... priceless.

Real Patriotism: First, obey the law

I guess this is the face of real American patriotism... the determination to remain true to the law, the Geneva Convention, and our own ideology in the face of Neocon lawlessness.

This is the story of a man who enlisted in good faith but has now deserted the Army; for fear that he will be forced to take a role in torturing captives, which he sees (rightfully) as a war crime.

From the Toronto Star:

Jemley argues that as one of only a small number of Arabic linguists with top security clearance, he could be forced to violate international law by participating in the interrogations of terrorism suspects. It was something he hadn't considered when he enlisted in 2005 and was handpicked to undergo two years of intense training due to his adeptness with languages.

Only last February did he discover that his government had sanctioned new rules on how terrorism suspects could be interrogated. He believes it's torture and when he realized he might be asked to be a part of it, he fled.

"It's a soldier's obligation to say `no' if their commander is doing things that are criminally complicit," Jemley, now 42, said in a recent interview in Toronto. "I think everyone is agreeing now that torture is really what has been going on ... I have every reason to believe that from my small pool that I belong to, with my credentials, that I'd be ordered to do such things."

Blackwater banned from operating in Iraq -- by Iraqi government

Well... this is surely news.

The question of the hour is whether or not they will comply:

Iraq has cancelled the licence of the private security firm, Blackwater USA, after it was involved in a gunfight in which at least eight civilians died.

The Iraqi interior ministry said the contractor, based in North Carolina, was now banned from operating in Iraq.

The Blackwater workers, who were contracted by the US state department, apparently opened fire after coming under attack in Baghdad on Sunday.

Thousands of private security guards are employed in lawless Iraq.

They are often heavily armed, but critics say some are not properly trained and are not accountable except to their employers.

The interior ministry's director of operations, Maj Gen Abdul Karim Khalaf, said authorities would prosecute any foreign contractors found to have used excessive force.

"We have opened a criminal investigation against the group who committed the crime," he told the AFP news agency.

All Blackwater personnel have been told to leave Iraq immediately, with the exception of the men involved in the incident on Sunday.

They will have to remain in the country and stand trial, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, the US response? If ever there was a telling 'official' response, it might be this:

A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Baghdad later confirmed there had been an incident in which state department security personnel reacted to a car bomb "in the proximity", and that they had been shot at.

"We are taking it very seriously indeed," she told the BBC, adding that discussions were still taking place about Blackwater's status now that they had been ordered to leave.

When asked if Blackwater was complying with the order, the spokeswoman said she could not comment because the investigation into the incident was still in progress.

A spokesman for the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said she wanted to ensure that everything was being done to avoid the loss of innocent life and to make sure this kind of incident never happened again.

She is also expected to telephone Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to reassure him that the US had launched its own investigation.

Yes, I'm sure we have 'launched an investigation.' And of course, that investigation is classified.

We do a lot of investigating. No actual results; but we investigate better than just about any other country in the world. You see we are a democracy. And that means investigations.

Of course the results are always 'classified,' and we never see any... well any actual results... but we are assured (as are officials in Iraq) that investigations are taking place.

By someone. Oh, absolutely.

(Condi to Nouri: "Blackwater will leave Iraq when we say Blackwater leaves Iraq. You forget yourself sir.")

Jon Stewart: is this thing on?

There is something vaguely familiar about that Petraeus report... ah, I get it. It's word for word identical to the 'Bush Talking Points.'

Gosh... isn't that amazing?

Feingold questions Petraeus

Can we clone Senator Feingold - please?

Indiana will take two. Thank you.



UPDATE: I just found out that two of the seven soldiers who authored this New York Times op-ed "The War as We Saw It" died yesterday in a vehicle accident in Iraq. One of them, Sgt. Mora, was due to return home in November.

Several Senators, including Senator Chuck Hagel, spoke highly of the op-ed and the soldiers who wrote it during the hearings - asking who the Senate should be expected to believe, the soldiers who fought in Iraq, or Petraeus?

Meanwhile, Petraeus never mentioned that two of them had just died, the previous day.

He obviously knew about the accident... he mentions it at the end of this YouTube video.

Did he know that two of the op-ed writers died in that accident? Their obituaries had already run in their hometown newspapers (Staff Sergeant Yance Gray, Sergeant Omar Mora) by the time of the hearings. Their names were out - to the general public. How could Petraeus not know?

And imagine the embarrassment had this come out in the hearings...

The Pentagon doesn't have a very good track record of letting on that they know information that will be damaging to their case (Tillman, Lynch.) And because of this past behavior, I no longer give them the benefit of the doubt.

Petraeus will most likely have known their names IF their names were on that op-ed writers' list, because someone from below would have freaked and sent the news up through the ranks. The Pentagon PR people were undoubtedly going crazy.

Or... perhaps not. Perhaps Petraeus 'wouldn't recall' their names anyway. Perhaps such a high ranking general wouldn't care about individual names. Which is worse - that he knew and didn't say, or that he didn't know because nobody cared?

I just hope he was squirming like hell when the Senators were talking about these guys. If two out of seven guys who write an op-ed can't even get home alive... yeah, surge is going just great. Hopefully the rest will make it out of, as Senator Hagel puts it, that 'meat-grinder.'

The cost

Nobody is ever 'home by Christmas.'

I'm starting to see the bricks

The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, pull back the curtains, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.

- Frank Zappa

When did our government decide that we citizens are the 'enemy?' Or has it always been this way? Appears Zappa was right after all. I'm beginning to see the bricks.

During the Clinton administration, I had this weird idea that we Americans were one nation. Oh, and that 'liberty and justice for all' bit still held true; or so it appeared. Perhaps we were all still asleep. These days, Clinton is golfing with Bush Sr. Makes you wonder.

Police break up anti-war meeting in Washington

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Mounted police charged in to break up an outdoor press conference and demonstration against the Iraq war in Washington on Thursday, arresting three people, organizers and an AFP reporter said.

"The police suppressed the press conference. In the middle of the speeches, they grabbed the podium" erected in a park in front of the White House for the small gathering, Brian Becker, national organizer of the ANSWER anti-war coalition, told AFP.

"Then, mounted police charged the media present to disperse them," Becker said.

The charge caused a peaceful crowd of some 20 journalists and four or five protestors to scatter in terror, an AFP correspondent at the event in Lafayette Square said. No one appeared to have been hurt.

Three people -- Tina Richards, the mother of a marine who did two tours of duty in Iraq; Adam Kokesh, a leader of the Iraq Veterans Against the War group; and lawyer Ian Thompson, who is an organizer for ANSWER in Los Angeles -- were arrested, Becker said.

I'm reading 'Presidential Courage' by Michael Beschloss. Fascinating book.

One of the things that has really stood out in the initial chapters (about George Washington and John Adams) is how... wonderfully unruly and free these early Americans were, to speak their minds and to get involved in their government. As I read, I see what real freedom looks like. And boy - we have lost it. I fear any semblance of free speech is hanging by a thread.

Perhaps that is why I test it so often out here on this blog. This is my wind sock.

These early patriots were in the streets demonstrating all the time; and their voices were heard. We really were a 'government by the people.'

This of course was before the banks and the corporations took over. The difference is painfully obvious - and I stress 'painfully,' because I am realizing more every day how much we have become like the old Soviet Bloc... how much we have lost of our wonderfully unruly democracy.

The frog in the pot is boiling now. Bush just tosses aside the laws he doesn't like and makes new ones to suit his and his corporate cronies' interests. The Constitution... to him, is just a 'damned piece of paper.'

We are definitely not the country we were. Lincoln used to welcome the widows and mothers of soldiers into his home; he didn't have them arrested.

But then... surely Bush is no Lincoln.

Olbermann lays waste to Bush and Iraq policy

Imagine for a moment, the arrogance...

... of asking for another $50 billion dollars to continue a war that nobody wants - neither Iraqis or Americans - and that has definitely made us less safe.

Now imagine asking for this money on the very anniversary of Katrina's landfall on the Gulf Coast. Imagine doing this while New Orleans and many other parts of the Gulf Coast are still languishing from lack of promised Federal aide, a full two years after the storm!

Pretty amazing, eh?

I have to hand it to W. He never ceases to amaze me.

From the Washington Post:

President Bush plans to ask Congress next month for up to $50 billion in additional funding for the war in Iraq, a White House official said yesterday, a move that appears to reflect increasing administration confidence that it can fend off congressional calls for a rapid drawdown of U.S. forces.

The request -- which would come on top of about $460 billion in the fiscal 2008 defense budget and $147 billion in a pending supplemental bill to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- is expected to be announced after congressional hearings scheduled for mid-September featuring the two top U.S. officials in Iraq. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker will assess the state of the war and the effect of the new strategy the U.S. military has pursued this year.

Rolling Stone: The Great Iraq Swindle

Power to the Rolling Stone for a little hard rock journalism - the work most American journalists aren't willing to do.

This searing expose pretty well lays it all out. Time to peel those patriotic bumper stickers off our cars and figure out how we plan to return to the good old days of 'Government of the People.'

We do have candidates that 'get it;' Kucinich, Edwards, Paul and probably Gravel... maybe even Huckabee, although he is keeping a low profile. McCain definitely gets it, as he pretty well described it for us in detail during his interviews for the movie 'Why We Fight.'

Now we just have to get one of them elected, rather than their corporate, media favorites. Somehow we have to get the news around to all Americans: this isn't some sort of war between 'us and them,' or even 'liberals and conservatives.' This is now a question of law vs. corruption and whether your kids will grow up in a Democracy... or something hideous.


read the story | digg story

The Daily Show: America to the rescue!

Reporting LIVE from the bunkers of Indiana

Golly jeepers, what a show! Thank you -- thank you Jon Stewart and Rob Riggle for finally reporting on the living hell we Hoosiers face here every day, in our frightening outdoor summer markets!

Much to my surprise, I turned on The Daily Show tonight for another installment of Operation Silent Thunder Fluffy Bunny, only to discover it was all about how closely Iraq resembles Indiana in the summertime!

It appears Rep Mike Pence was right!



Oh wait. Rob: you're saying you didn't find any similarities? NONE AT ALL? Could it be... that our representative Mike Pence lied to us?

Yes, it seems that Rob Riggle couldn't find a single Hoosier in Iraq that would acknowledge, or could find... well, even one similarity between Iraq and Indiana. Not even the food!

Well that's just ducky. Because -- due entirely to Pence's early warning -- outdoor markets have been a big concern to Hoosiers this summer:

Mike Pence's recent comment comparing shopping in a Baghdad bazaar with 'a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime' has many Hoosiers baffled and bewildered.

Should we buy flak jackets for that stroll through the weekly farmers market this summer? Are the farmers crankier than last year; perhaps because of the frost damage this past week?

Or did Mr Pence simply spend too long in the Iraqi sun? He should come home. It's snowing here.

We do have a town in Indiana named Lebanon... but I've never heard of any IEDs going off there - or anywhere else for that matter. We also don't have a proclivity for snipers, suicide bombers, or anything more exciting than an occasional fire cracker.

Still, many of us are considering that perhaps we are simply behind the times. Maybe Rep. Pence knows more than we do... it doesn't hurt to take precautions.

I know I'll be procuring protective gear before I head out to buy tomatoes this summer...

So there you have it. We've been taking precautions ALL SUMMER, thanks to the timely advice of our own dear representative Mike Pence. And now we're finding out -- thanks to the investigative reporting of Rob Riggle -- that this was all for nothing!

Do you know how hot those flak jackets are in this humidity?

Well anyway... it was nice seeing and hearing from fellow Hoosiers serving in Iraq, if nothing else.

/feduphoosier waves to fellow Hoosiers in Iraq!

I do however have a message for those of you bozo representatives from Indiana who persist in embarrassing the hell out of the rest of the populace in this long suffering state: ENOUGH. Give us a break already. We're still recovering from the lingering stigma of Dan Quayle...

Just shoot me.

No wait... I was kidding! /dives for cover as the wind blows through the branches of the trees outside my window, making very scary noises... a snap of a twig, or maybe even a falling branch! Eek!

---- This is feduphoosier, reporting LIVE from the bunkers of Indiana. All is quiet tonight on the Midwestern front...

A. Lincoln: Endless war

After writing my original post, in which I asked my late friend Abraham Lincoln if he might speak on my behalf concerning our loss of constitutional protections, I mentioned my - our frustration with this endless war, and our president's incomprehensible statements in its defense.

As it turns out, Mr. Lincoln has plenty of experience with stubborn, clueless presidents and 'endless wars.' Recalling his own, frustrating days in Congress, he will now address the members of the 110th Congress on the subject of 'mentally perplexed' presidents... and war.

I have once again offered to take this letter down as dictation (I serve at the pleasure of the president.) My words will be identifiable as regular type; anything written by Mr. Lincoln will be in

blockquotes;

with the addition that I will make use of strikeouts to enhance readability ( Mexico becomes Iraq; it should be clear.)

Sincerely, M

____________________________________________



Gentlemen and Ladies of the Congress:

I would be remiss in my responsibility as former president of this great nation if I did not write to you today; and speaking on behalf of all who have died for the honor of this nation, I must address your abysmal record with regard to the continuation of this illegal and immoral war with the once sovereign nation of Iraq.

That you have so far failed in your duty to end this blatantly illegal war; and that you have so willingly ceded your rightful powers to control the flow of money to said war, and in that you have abdicated your other constitutionally given powers of oversight which are your rightful duties as the legislative branch of this government -- all of this surprises and confounds me.

It is your responsibility to control the monies that will be used for this war, and so ensure that the public interest has not been abused. Ladies and gentlemen of Congress: this is your duty to the people of this nation, and to future generations. May I also suggest that it is also your duty to those who came before you; those of your ancestors who have given so much that you might enjoy the freedom and prosperity in which you live today.

The people of this nation do not want war. It is your duty as representatives of the citizenry to uphold their faith and put an end to it. You must find the means, and with all possible haste, to bring this loss of life, money and national honor to an immediate close.

As for the irregularities that have taken place within this administration; the responsibility rests with Congress to protect and defend the Constitution, from all enemies foreign AND DOMESTIC. As you have all sworn oaths to defend our Constitution, you must not waver from this duty; for history will assail you, and your children's children curse your names if you do not rescue the rule of law and justice from the grasp of this expanded, presidential tyranny.

In short:

I am not concerned that you have fallen. I am concerned that you arise.

When the war began, it was my opinion that all those who, because of knowing too little, or because of knowing too much, could not conscientiously approve the conduct of the President, in the beginning of it, should, nevertheless, as good citizens and patriots, remain silent on that point, at least till the war should be ended.

My way of living leads me to be about the courts of justice; and there, I have sometimes seen a good lawyer, struggling for his client's neck, in a desperate case, employing every artifice to work round, befog, and cover up, with many words, some point arising in the case, which he dared not admit, and yet could not deny. Party bias may help to make it appear so; but with all the allowance I can make for such bias, it still does appear to me, that just such, and from just such necessity, is the President's struggle in this case.

I more than suspect already, that he is deeply conscious of being in the wrong---that he feels the blood of this war, like the blood of Abel, is crying to Heaven against him. That originally having some strong motive---what, I will not stop now to give my opinion concerning---to involve the two countries in a war, and trusting to escape scrutiny, by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military glory---that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood---that serpent's eye, that charms to destroy---he plunged into it, and has swept, on and on, till, disappointed in his calculation of the ease with which Mexico Iraq might be subdued, he now finds himself, he knows not where.

How like the half insane mumbling of a fever-dream, is the whole war part of his late message! At one time telling us that Mexico Iraq has nothing whatever, that we can get, but teritory WMDs and terrorists; at another, showing us how we can support the war, by levying contributions on Mexico Iraq at one time, urging the national honor, the security of the future, the prevention of foreign interference, and even, the good of Mexico Iraq herself, as among the objects of the war; at another, telling us, that to reject indemnity, by refusing to accept a cession of teritory "to cut and run, and fail to support democracy would be to abandon all our just demands, and to wage the war, bearing all it's expenses, without a purpose or definite object."

Again, the President is resolved, under all circumstances, to have full teritorial indemnity blank check funding for the expenses of the war; but he forgets to tell us how we are to get the excess, after those expenses shall have surpassed the value of the whole of the Mexican teritory Iraqi oil.

So again, he insists that the separate national existence of Mexico Iraq shall be maintained; but he does not tell us how this can be done, after we shall have taken all her teritory destroyed her infrastructure. Lest the questions, I here suggest, be considered speculative merely, let me be indulged a moment in trying to show they are not.

If the prosecution of the war has, in expenses, already equaled the better half of the country our national budget, how long it's future prosecution, will be in equaling, the less valuable half entire rest of our treasury, is not a speculative, but a practical question, pressing closely upon us. And yet it is a question which the President seems to never have thought of. As to the mode of terminating the war, and securing peace, the President is equally wandering and indefinite.

First, it is to be done by a more vigorous prosecution of the war in the vital parts of the enemies country; and, after apparently, talking himself tired, on this point, the President drops down into a half despairing tone, and tells us that "with a people distracted and divided by contending factions, and a government subject to constant changes, by successive revolutions, the continued success of our arms may fail to secure a satisfactory peace."

Then he suggests the propriety of wheedling the Mexican Iraqi people to desert the counsels of their own leaders, and trusting in our protection, to set up a government from which we can secure a satisfactory peace; telling us, that "this may become the only mode of obtaining such a peace." But soon he falls into doubt of this too; and then drops back on to the already half abandoned ground of more vigorous prosecution.

All this shows that the President is, in no wise, satisfied with his own positions. First he takes up one, and in attempting to argue us into it, he argues himself out of it; then seizes another, and goes through the same process; and then, confused at being able to think of nothing same process; and then, confused at being able to think of nothing new, he snatches up the old one again, which he has some time before cast off.

His mind, tasked beyond it's power, is running hither and thither, like some tortured creature, on a burning surface, finding no position, on which it can settle down, and be at ease.

Again, it is a singular omission in this message, that it, no where intimates when the President expects the war to terminate.

Every department, and every part, land and water, officers and privates, regulars and volunteers, doing all that men could do, and hundreds of things which it had ever before been thought men could not do,---after all this, this same President gives us a long message, without showing us, that, as to the end, he himself, has, even an imaginary conception.

As I have before said, he knows not where he is. He is a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man. God grant he may be able to show, there is not something about his conscience, more painful than all his mental perplexity!

I carefully examined the President's messages, to ascertain what he himself had said and proved upon the point. The result of this examination was to make the impression, that taking for true, all the President states as facts, he falls far short of proving his justification; and that the President would have gone farther with his proof, if it had not been for the small matter, that the truth would not permit him.

Let the President answer the interrogatories, I proposed, as before mentioned, or some other similar ones. Let him answer, fully, fairly, and candidly. Let him answer with facts, and not with arguments. Let him remember he sits where Washington sat, and so remembering, let him answer, as Washington would answer. As a nation should not, and the Almighty will not, be evaded, so let him attempt no evasion---no equivocation.

Yours truly,

Bush considers the draft: Are you really surprised?

Vietnam redux, all over again. But seriously folks... is anyone really surprised? Was there any other alternative for our poor, beleaguered president?

Bush won't end the war. The Democrats won't end the war. Our troops are being decimated; sent back for 3, 4 and 5 tours in this 'war without end.' In spite of the fact that the Iraqi parliament has stated that it does not want us there, we intend to remain. Until when? Well... until either hell freezes over or when Exxon, Chevron and BP get their hands on that oil.

So really... what choice do our poor leaders have but to start drafting the rest of our kids?

Jon Stewart: Pentagon 'misplaces' guns in Iraq

And a few other assorted things...

Gingrich calls the War on Terror 'phony'

Gingrich is up to something. Oh yes, he is definitely up to something.

Newt Gingrich is now publicly claiming that the War on Terra is 'phony.'

Come again?

Yes, Gingrich says its all a sham. "We’re about to enter the seventh year of this phony war...and we’re losing."

Yes - not only is the War on Terra phony... but we're losing.

Gingrich added, "None of you should believe we are winning this war. There is no evidence that we are winning this war."

What the hell has gotten into him?

In a speech to a group of 'young conservatives' in Washington, D.C. on Thursday:

Instead of the current strategy to fight terrorism, Gingrich said we should focus on energy independence. "We have to have a national energy strategy, which basically says to the Saudis, 'We’re not going to rely on you.'"

Gingrich also attacked the current administration and former Republican Congressional leadership in saying "We were in charge for six years...I don’t think you can look and say that was a great success."

Yes, his lips were moving. I don't have tape or a YouTube, but it does appear that there were witnesses.

What's with the sudden truthfulness? A desperate attempt to save a sinking GOP Titanic?

Olbermann on fire