Open Thread Time
There is such a welter of information flowing that you just can't keep track of it all (with a hat tip to paradox). It is time for an open thread, so that if we can't know what is going on, at least we can know of it -- or more likely, know of some of it.
Bush is Terrorists Best Friend
Trey Ellis at the Huffington Post calls it like it is:
His own NIE says Bush is the Terrorists' Best Friend. When will the Democrats?
"So let me get this straight, the C.I.A, the N.S.A. Negroponte, every single intelligence branch we've got, all got together, produced a National Intelligence Estimate and decided that the way that the Bush administration has prosecuted the war on terrorism has actually made it quantitatively worse. And remember that all of these intelligence branches, for the past six years, have been aggressively purged by the Bushies of Democrats and other pesky non-believers."...
..."Repeat after me:
"The Bush Administration's incompetence is making us less safe, not more. They have inspired thousands more jihadists than they have captured or killed. If you don't believe us believe their own experts. We Democrats have a plan to save our nation from this dangerous bungling. Vote for us and we will quickly turn this ship of state away from the iceberg."
This needs to be shouted at a press conference, yet not only Reid and Pelosi, but Kerry, Biden and Murtha need to be at the mic as well. Dems need to show the world that they speak with one strong voice on the most important issue of the day. They need to start listening to people like Michael Scheurer, former CIA senior analyst, formerly anonymous author of "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror," and former chief of the Counterterrorist Center's bin Laden unit.
Here's what Scheurer said on the Washington Post online back in 2004. It's still just as true today: "First, I think it's essential that our leaders begin to square with the American people. We are under attack by Islamic militants for what we do in the world -- not for who we are or what we believe in. Quite simply, American policies in the Islamic world are Osama bin Laden's only indispensable ally." ...
More at the link above
Democrats throwing election?
The news is handing the elections to the Democrats on a silver platter, actually it is being rammed down their throats. But, the Democrats don't seem to want to win. Are the "winophobic" [sic], or are they "whinophiles" [sic]?
Its sort of like throwing a boxing match to a legless and armless opponent who has been propped up in the ring. A strong breath will bowl the Rethugs over.
Lying Rice
Rice claims that Clinton left no comprehensive plan to fight terrorism. Rice has made a lot of statements about terrorism, the most glaring that no one could have predicted that terrorists would slam two planes into the WTC at 8:38 and 15 minutes later on 9/01. The operative terms being the date and time. FEMA was in NY the night before to practice planes hitting a skyscraper.
So undoubtedly, Rice is saying that Clinton did not let the Bush cabal know the exact date and time of the attack. BAD CLINTON! BAD CLINTON!
Clinton...
or some other high ranking democrat could probably do more good than many could imagine by launching a full scale assault back at Rice right now. The press love it a fight, and we've got the facts on our side. The only catch is that if someone is going to do that they've got to be prepared to go all the way, make NO apologies and martyr themselves for a while because it would be a hell-and-back trip for sure. Going halfway would be worse than never attempting the crossing..
We're approaching the very last opportunity to raise a battle cry. Who is willing to be the galvanizing figure through November 2nd?
Great idea, m.
I'm reminded of that feature from mydd you mentioned to me at one point. If you think you'll use something like that, and imagine that anyone else even might use it (I for one probably would!), I'd be more than happy to hook something like that up.
In light of the "Winds of change" post, just wanted to sneak it in here about the type of things that are possible. If people have good ideas I'm ready to help facilitate the technical end of it.
Let me know what you think. (or anyone else for that matter)
Breaking news facility
You already have a list anchored to the front page (bug list), "all" that you need to do is change the sort order to reverse chronological, like the diaries. That, and find more room on the front page;^) Same for the action list.
Am trying to iron out
the spec in my head. There are two things we're talking about right?
1. "Breaking news" functionality
2. "Action list" functionlity
There are a couple of way to do this and we don't necessarily have to pick the same way for each thing (meaning breaking news could work differently than action items)
For example I could turn on forums along with lists for the most recent topics posted in each category.
Or we can do it with the post/article like we have now and have the list of most recent topics.
Kind of like the forums idea because it give a different dimension to the site and is scalable, but if you think it would be awkard for any reason - or you just don't like forums, I'm sure the other way would be fine, too. Many ways to skin a cat and all that...
Also, I think there are some really cool modules for the action items out there too, which could be integrated as we go along.
Links to some modules...
which we could integrate now or sometime in the future (this is really in addition to, or along side with the features we're already talking about):
CitizenSpeak - http://drupal.org/node/32189
E-Publish - http://drupal.org/project/epublish
CiviCRM - http://drupal.org/project/CiviCRM
Chip-in - http://drupal.org/project/chipin
Comments?
All we need is
is people being interested, which it sounds like myself, and maybe m would be too. Setting it up probably isn't that bad.
I'll check it out a little more thoroughly (I just glanced at things myself) and see what it would involve for participation and such and go from there.
Let's keep this conversation going though because I know if we let it die what will happen...(nothing, right)
US Competitiveness Takes A Dive
From Kevin Drum's Political Animal:
"COMPETITIVENESS....The World Economic Forum's latest league tables have dropped the United States from first to sixth in global competitiveness. But why? What could we possibly have done to merit this drop? Let's see:
The WEF said the best performing countries were distinguished by their competent economic stewardship....
Oh. Right. I guess that would do it.
"US competitiveness is threatened by large macroeconomic imbalances, particularly rising levels of public indebtedness associated with repeated fiscal deficits," the report said.
"Its relative ranking remains vulnerable to a possible disorderly adjustment of such imbalances."
Thanks, Republican Party!"
Newsweek selfcensors US covers
The 9/25 issue of Newsweek for Europe, Asia and Latin America has a cover stating "Loosing Afghanistan", but the cover for this issue in the US is on "Annie Liebowitz - My Life in Pictures".
See it for yourself at Foreign Policy
America's anthem lately
"Get off of my cloud"
The Facts Behind the NIE
Larry Johnson, retired CIA agent, classmate of Valarie Plame, and blogger reports on the unclassified facts behind the National Inteligence Estimate that states the incidence of terror has increased because of the Iraq war.
"Although the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) regarding Iraq and terrorism is still classified (UPDATE: The Key Judgments are now declassified and can be found at this link), the data behind the findings is not and has been publicly available for three years. I have written repeatedly on this fact and it has been, I am told, the judgment of the intelligence community for at least two years. The statistics on terrorist activity, until this year, were published in the State Department's annual report on terrorism (Patterns of Global Terrorism). The Bush Administration tried to not publish the report last year because the data showed an unprecedented surge in international terrorist attacks. "
More at NoQuarter
Gasoline prices and Goldman Sachs
From Undernews:
Goldman Sachs, defacto manager of the commodities index, made changes in its July index which resulted in the sales of large numbers of gasoline futures contracts, which was associated with a significant fall in the price of gasoline. Note that Goldman Sachs is the firm that was headed by newly appointed Treasury Secretary Harold Paulson.
"...it lends credence to the theory that the current well-publicized commodities decline is just a well-timed, well-orchestrated head fake to benefit the incumbents in the run up to the midterm elections - someone noted recently that Bush's ratings vary inversely with gas prices. . .
This has been on my mind
several times in the past couple elections. In fact, I was just saying to Beth the other day that I'd be very, very interested to see a chart with gas prices and election times on it. As a casual observer, the relationship seems to be remarkable. Thanks for posting this.
File it under the 'just because your paranoid doesn't mean someone's out to getcha' category.
Condi Rice: Liar, Stupid, or Both?
From Larry Johnson at NoQuarter:
"When it comes to the 9-11 blame game, Condi Rice is either a liar or stupid. No other logical possible explanation accounts for her delusional claim to the New York Post that, "We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al Qaeda." Rice was responding to President Clinton, who told Chris Wallace last week that his Adminstration left the Bush Administration with a plan for dealing with the Al Qaeda threat.
But this ain't a case of "He said, She said". There is a documentary record and it is unambiguous. In fact there are two documents. First, is the strategy itself. Comprehensive and straightforward. Second, is the memo from Clarke to Rice. For folks unaccustomed to the intricacies of bureaucracy, this memo, which was given to Rice on 25 Janaury 2001, is the equivalent of a smoking mushroom cloud. This is truly damning because it provides the road map for the actions the Bush team should have taken but didn't."
Senate Passes Detainee Bill 65-34
Torture, imprisonment without charges, hearings or trials, and no recourse to the courts, are now the law of the land.
I can not believe that the Democrats went along with this. I take back all of the unpleasant things I ever said about them: the words I used were never harsh enough to describe the perfidy, cowardice and craven behavior that the Democrats are capable of. Both parties need to be renamed. Neither Republican or Democrat is an appropriate appellation for these wretches.
I am physically ill from this vote. I thought that Iraq would be the worst possible shame that I would have for my nation. It seems that I was naively optimistic. Absolute disgust.
I'm very glad that
I'm working on launching my new hosting package this very day, because it's kept me too busy to give this much more than a once over. Would like to say that I am surprised, but I am not. Am however, disappointed. Very. As with recent times all I can wonder is what it means. What is next. That question looms larger than ever now for a growing number of people.
Twelve Immoral Democrats
Twelve Democrats voted in favor of the Senate bill: Tom Carper (DE), Tim Johnson (SD), Mary Landrieu (LA), Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Joe Lieberman (CT), Bob Menendez (NJ), Bill Nelson (FL), Ben Nelson (NE), Mark Pryor (AR), Jay Rockefeller (WV), Ken Salazar (CO), and Debbie Stabenow (MI)
One Republican, Lincoln Chaffee (Ri) voted against, the single Independent, Jeffords (VT), voted against the bill as well.
No excuse
I think the bottom line is the Dems are scared sh--less by Repugs looking for any reason to frame them as soft on terror. BUT, THAT IS NO EXCUSE. Both parties have hijacked our democratic values to gain political advantage.
The NYT has an excellent article describing this travesty.
Not really surprised, but did think Dems would vote against -- though I am surprised at Mary Landrieu (LA).
Again, as I said in another post, I would be surprised if this bill passes Constitutional muster. I really think there will be serious fallout from the passage of this bill which suspends habeas corpus, reinterprets the Geneva Conventions and actually allows the president to classify U.S. citizens as enemy combatants who can be detained indefinately.
Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints...
I'm trying to see the silver lining in it...
Those who voted for the bill are mostly in tight races (and/or red-leaning states), and this vote "innoculated" them against easy GOP ads attacking them for being softies... which is exactly what they could have expected.
The better news was how many Democrats actually voted against it. They didn't give it much of the appearance of bipartisanship this time, like they did with the war, and the patriot act. The GOP will have to take the heat for it... eventually.
An incremental improvement, I know, but there's probably some kind of scrimmage metaphor that would work here ('cept I purposefully know little about football).
I know the Dems haven't been as oppositional as we would like, but I do think they're doing the best they can... just trying to get a majority so they can shift the power dynamic. That has to be Job One. Otherwise, there will be no stopping the GOP.
Just think about how many races are actually in play-- completely unexpected. I hope they prove all of the pundits wrong. Maybe they'll finally have to shut up about process and the horse-race... and pay more attention to substance.
Karen M ~ Bread Crumbs and Lyssa Strada
With all due respect...
...isn't this how we got to where we are today?
"Those who voted for the bill are mostly in tight races (and/or red-leaning states), and this vote "innoculated" them against easy GOP ads attacking them for being softies... which is exactly what they could have expected."
I think we've been on the slippery slope too long. Wayyy to long. About the scrimmage reference - something about 'how to score points when you're always playing defense' comes to mind.
But nobody who can do anything about it has cared much for that opinion, which I have held steadfast to for the past several years. It's just not worth getting worked up about for me anymore. (or even if it is, it doesn't seem to do much good, and justs end up with me holding the short end of the stick)
The zero/groan...
was obviously not for you, m.
The Zero/Groan....
Had to be for me, because it is way to high a rating for what our Congress did to us :^(
Dems make sow's ear from silk purse
From the Cursor:
Although Glenn Greenwald finds enough fodder in the NIE to 'dictate the outcome of the election,' one analyst warns, "never underestimate the Democrats' ability to make a sow's ear out of a silk purse."