Ten Years After
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Bush politics as usual.

WASHINGTON –Democrats are accusing the Bush administration of holding up a report on the number of people going hungry in the United States.

Since 1999, the number of people struggling with hunger has risen from 31 million to 38 million in 2004. The Agriculture Department report has generally been released in October, a month after annual poverty figures are released by the Census Department.

Democrats said the delay appears political. Competitive elections across the country will decide next Tuesday whether President Bush’s party keeps control of Congress.

USDA officials said the report has long been set for a mid-November release and that the delay is not political.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., compared the delay to a recent IRS decision to hold off collections of back taxes from last year’s hurricane victims.

Read more here

Bush Joke

VoteVets.org comes out with a response to the RNC scaremonger ad with visions of Osama and terrorists with what the NIE said was the reason why we are actually in more danger. It’s because of Iraq. Gen. Wesley Clark
drives the message home with the ad that ran on CNN.

See the video here

H/T JoeWo for this post

PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) — Donald Trump’s display of patriotism is apparently too flamboyant for this chic oceanside town.

Palm Beach officials cited Trump for hoisting a large American flag atop an 80-foot pole at his lavish Mar-a-Lago estate and club.

Town officials said the real estate mogul has violated zoning codes with a flagpole taller than 42 feet and for erecting it without a building permit and permission from the landmarks board.

Trump has until November 27 to apply for approvals or face a December 21 code enforcement hearing that could result in $250-a-day fines.

“You don’t need a permit to put up the American flag,” Trump said Tuesday. “The day you need a permit to put up the American flag, that will be a sad day for this country.”

Lee Hanley, vice chairman of the town’s landmarks commission, previously said the 15-by-25-foot flag makes the town look like “we have an Okeechobee car dealer,” referring to a strip of auto dealerships along Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach.

Trump responded in a letter last week saying that “anyone who objects should not, in my opinion, hold a public office of any kind — at least not in this country.”

The flag first appeared outside the estate October 3.

Link

I understand patriotism. I suspect most of us do. BUT… if I were to purchase an American flag large enough to wrap around Trump’s home, blocking the sunlight and filling his home with darkness, would he stand in perpetual salute, or would he sue my ass off?
I think you know the answer to that one.

Here we go………

By Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press Writer | November 1, 2006

WASHINGTON –Lawyers for dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to declare a key part of President Bush’s new military trials law unconstitutional.

The detainees’ lawyers challenged the military’s authority to arrest people overseas and detain them indefinitely without allowing them to use the U.S. courts to contest their detention.

Bush gave the military that authority last month when he signed a new law that sets up special commissions to hold trials for foreigners designated as “enemy combatants.” Bush hailed the law as a crucial tool in the war on terrorism and said it would allow prosecution of several high-level terror suspects.

Read more at Boston.com

When Einstein died and arrived at the gates of heaven, St. Peter wouldn’t let him in until he proved his identity. Einstein scribbled out a couple of his equations, and was admitted into paradise. And when Picasso died, St. Peter asked, “How do I know you’re Picasso?” Picasso sketched out a couple of his masterpieces. St. Peter was convinced and let him in. When George W. Bush died, he went to heaven and met the man at the gates. “How can you prove to me you’re George W. Bush?” Saint Peter said. Bush replied, “Well heck, I dont know.” St. Peter says, “Well, Albert Einstein showed me his equations and Picasso drew his famous pictures. What can you do to prove you’re George W. Bush?” Bush replies, “Who are Albert Einstein and Picasso?” St. Peter says, “It must be you, George, c’mon in.”

Bush Humor

Just found this post over at Transparent Grid. Excellent site… definitely check them out!

Should John Kerry Just Shut Up?

It is a rarity when a politician is able to successfully tell a joke (only Reagan could truly do it well). Biting comments directed at the opposition in front of a loyal audience don-t matter, because seals clap at anything. Kerry’s verbal attempt at humor at Bush’s expense was very different from his prepared text - which underscores to not adlib unless you-re Bill Clinton - which ended with “you get us stuck in Iraq” rather than “you will be stuck in Iraq.” As said, one could reasonably and politically interpret the inartful phraseology as denigrating the troops when the context of what was said and who was talking completely belies that claim.

Despite Media Matters best efforts, the truth doesn-t matter. It takes too long to explain and at least part of the debate has already been framed with a general media consensus that Kerry messed up. Fine, get over it Democrats and move on. Here is how:
#1 Stop talking about it. Remember Cheney’s water dunking comment last week? Right - it is barely registering. What about the liberal outrage at Bush’s press club skit of looking for WMD under his sofa cushion? The point is that Republicans don-t talk about their screwups. Nothing is helped by either engaging in this debate on left-leaning blogs, like this one, or on progressive radio. We are not the voters which will be swayed by this ibroglio anyway. A snippy, “John Kerry’s record speaks for itself, now let’s talk about the important issues,” will do. Media Matters, for example, is wasting gobs of time by pointing out how this MSM member and that is mischaracterizing Kerry. Stop it, David Brock! Focus on the George Allen’s goon squad or something.
#2 Conversely, this is not the time to equivocate. Even if one thinks Kerry botched this in a massive way, it doesn-t help to be all intellectually fair about it and say so in public. Stay on message unless you-re in a district where you need to toss him overboard , but then do so quietly.
#3 Flip, flip, flip. Remember the Karl Rove tactic - attack them at their perceived strenght and make it their biggest weakness. Kerry handled himself ably yesterday when he turned on the GOP message machine (their strength) and questioned the President’s honor by trying to drag Kerry through the mud. By flipping, I mean to turn the argument against the GOP, for example, “To think that Kerry was denigrating the troops is ludicrous, he was talking about a president who didn-t know that there were both Shi-ites and Sunnis living in Iraq before the invasion, let alone did he understand the difference.” Or - “Look, this administration is either grossly callous or completely incompetent - after 9/11 they said, A-no one imagined that terrorists would fly planes into the World Trade Center- (wrong); after the invasion of Iraq we find out they didn-t plan for an insurgency, didn-t see it coming; after Katrina, A-no imagined that the levies would be breached.- I can-t imagine anyone being that uncaring about what happens to other Americans, including our soldiers, so the administration must be ignorant and incompetent.” Final example, “While the GOP’s media army marches in lock’step, the voters want to know when our troops are coming home and if they-ll be properly fed, protected and cared for before they do.”

I-m bored with this “topic,” so let’s get back to what matters, winning the election.

Link

11/01/06 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Sgt. Michael T. Seeley, 27, of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, died Oct. 30 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Seeley was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment
11/01/06 MCT: Kroll pulls security teams out of Iraq
Security company Kroll has withdrawn its bodyguard teams from Iraq and Afghanistan after it lost four workers in Iraq, its parent company said Wednesday.
11/01/06 AP: 2 Sunni coaches abducted from youth club in Baghdad
Gunmen seized two Sunni coaches from a youth club Wednesday in Baghdad, while authorities searched for dozens of Shiites abducted along a dangerous highway north of the capital in another outbreak of Iraq’s relentless tit-for-tat sectarian violence.
11/01/06 UPI: Many U.S. War Dead Were On Extended Tours
Nearly one-third of the 104 U.S. troops killed in Iraq in October were on multiple tours, a Chicago Tribune analysis published Wednesday said.
11/01/06 AP: Gunmen kill policeman and clerk with the Ministry of Industry
In fresh attacks Wednesday, unknown gunmen riding in a private car shot dead police officer Izzaddin Abbas in central Baghdad as he rode his motorcycle home…A clerk with the Ministry of Industry was shot and killed in northeastern Baghdad
11/01/06 AP: Police officer killed in Mosul, charred body found
A police officer was among three people shot dead in the northern city of Mosul, said Brig. Sa’eed Ahmed of the provincial Police Information Office. Mosul police also discovered the charred body of an apparent murder victim, Ahmed said.
11/01/06 AP: 2 people killed in Baqouba and Muqdadiyah, cleric killed in Safwan
Two people were killed in Baqouba and Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, while Sunni cleric Sheikh Yasin al-Kubaisi was killed along with his son Ahmed during clashes between police and armed fuel smugglers in the southern border town of Safwan.
11/01/06 AP: Police Maj. kidnapped while visiting relatives in Rahsad
Police Maj. Mohannad Saqiq Abbas of Transportation Ministry protection force was kidnapped while visiting relatives in Rahsad, about 250 kilometers north of Baghdad, police Brig. Sarhat Qadir said.
11/01/06 AP: More bodies found
The bodies of three people who were shot after being blindfolded and bound at the wrists were found dumped in the capital’s eastern districts…Five more bodies were pulled from the Tigris River near Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad…
11/01/06 AP: Gunmen kill police receptionist in the northern city of Mosul
Gunmen killed Batool Jabur Shallal, a police receptionist in the northern city of Mosul, as she was driving with her husband, police Col. Abdul Karim Khalaf said.
11/01/06 AP: 40 Shiites reported abducted in Iraq
More than 40 Shiites were abducted along a notoriously dangerous highway just north of Baghdad, police said Wednesday, and the death toll from a suicide bombing at a wedding party rose to 23, including nine children.
11/01/06 AP: Gunmen kidnap Iraqi coach for blind athletes
Unknown gunmen abducted the secretary general of Iraq’s national basketball federation and another man who coached blind athletes, police said, the latest in a wave of kidnappings targeting national sports figures.
11/01/06 DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
Pfc. Jason Franco, 18, of Corona, Calif., died Oct. 31 from a non-hostile incident in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 11, Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Miramar, Calif.
11/01/06 LATimes: More than ever, insurgents are targeting U.S. forces
The number of attacks on American forces increased in October to unprecedented levels, U.S. military officials said. “There has been a much more considered effort to specifically target coalition and Iraqi security forces,”
11/01/06 LATimes: A violent month hits home
Four were teenagers. Thirty were 21 or younger. The oldest was 53. They left homes in big cities and small prairie towns and Southern hamlets to answer the call of duty in Iraq, where 103 soldiers, Marines, airmen and seamen died in October…
11/01/06 NYTimes: Iraqi Demands Pullback; U.S. Lifts Baghdad Cordon
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki demanded the removal of American checkpoints from the streets of Baghdad on Tuesday, in what appeared to be his latest and boldest gambit in an increasingly tense struggle for more independence…
11/01/06 NYTimes: U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq Still Mostly Outside Capital
About two-thirds of the deaths among American troops in Iraq in October occurred outside Baghdad, even with a sharp increase in combat deaths in the capital that made it the fourth deadliest month of the war for the United States…
11/01/06 Guardian: Iraq has cost more than £4bn, says MoD
Britain’s participation in the invasion of Iraq and its continuing military presence in the country has cost more than £4bn, according to Ministry of Defence figures.
11/01/06 Reuters: Ten bodies found dumped in different districts of Baghdad
Ten bodies were found dumped in different districts of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said. Most had gunshot wounds in the head.
11/01/06 Reuters: Roadside bomb kills two, wounds 10 in central Baghdad
A roadside bomb killed two people and wounded 10 in the Shoran district of central Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.
11/01/06 Reuters: Gunmen attack head of the little-known Iraqi National Party
Gunmen wounded Hazim al-Hemedawi, head of the little-known Iraqi National Party, after ambushing his convoy. Two of his bodyguards were also hurt, an Interior Ministry source said.
11/01/06 Reuters: Body found in Rumania
Police found the body of a man in the town of Rumania, 120 km (70 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
11/01/06 Reuters: Iraqi army arrest seven “terrorists” and 52 suspected insurgents
The Iraqi army has arrested seven “terrorists” and 52 suspected insurgents in the last 24 hours in different parts of Iraq, the Defence Ministry
11/01/06 Reuters: Translater killed in Diwaniya
Gunmen on Tuesday killed an Iraqi man who worked as a translator for U.S. forces, police said.
11/01/06 AP: 3 Killed in Second Bomb Attack in Iraq
A car bomb killed three people and wounded five others in Baghdad’s Sadr City section early Tuesday, a day after a bombing killed at least 33 people in the overwhelmingly Shiite neighborhood.
11/01/06 WaPo: Along Iraq-Syria Border, a Struggle to Cover the Terrain
A convoy of U.S. Humvees streamed through the midnight darkness, following the border as soldiers scanned the endless flats with night-vision goggles. The thin earthen berm separating northern Iraq from Syria lay just a few hundred yards…
11/01/06 AP: Family says Illinois native was killed in Iraq
A family is mourning the death of their 26-year-old son who was killed in Iraq. Sgt. Kraig Foyteck’s mother, Connie, says she was notified Tuesday that her son was killed when he was hit in the neck by a bullet or mortar fragment Monday in Mosul.
11/01/06 NYTimes: Military Charts Movement of Conflict in Iraq Toward Chaos
A classified briefing prepared two weeks ago by the United States Central Command portrays Iraq as edging toward chaos, in a chart that the military is using as a barometer of civil conflict.

Asked about this report today, Tony Snow answered: I don’t think he was, but you know, what you’re probably not aware of is that these are done regularly, and that was a snapshot taken at the height of the Ramadan violence. If you got the same report last week, you would have found out that national sectarian incidents from the 21st to the 27th dropped 23 percent; casualties nationwide dropped 23 percent; incidents of sectarian violence in Baghdad dropped 23 percent; sectarian killings in Baghdad dropped 41 percent. You had a snapshot at a single point when it was violent.

Ohhhhhhhh so it’s NOT violent now? Gee, thanks for clearing that up for us Tony!!

Published: November 1, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 - A classified briefing prepared two weeks ago by the United States Central Command portrays Iraq as edging toward chaos, in a chart that the military is using as a barometer of civil
A one-page slide shown at the Oct. 18 briefing provides a rare glimpse into how the military command that oversees the war is trying to track its trajectory, particularly in terms of sectarian fighting.

The slide includes a color-coded bar chart that is used to illustrate an “Index of Civil Conflict.” It shows a sharp escalation in sectarian violence since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February, and tracks a further worsening this month despite a concerted American push to tamp down the violence in Baghdad.

In fashioning the index, the military is weighing factors like the ineffectual Iraqi police and the dwindling influence of moderate religious and political figures, rather than more traditional military measures such as the enemy’s fighting strength and the control of territory.
Read more here