Bush is so endangering us by breaking our military. Something’s gotta give…..

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Nearly four years in Iraq have hammered US army and marines into a skilled counter-insurgency force but has left it unready for war against a conventionally armed foe, US generals warn.

Arguing for big budget increases and more troops, leaders of both military services have made the case in recent days that the US military faces greater risk today if it is called to respond to another major conflict.

“What we are developing right now is the best counterinsurgency force in the world, both army and marine,” General James Conway, commandant of the marine corps, told lawmakers Tuesday.

But “that’s essentially what they’re focused on,” Conway added, because troops have little time to train for anything else between tours to Iraq.

“So we need to be able to train toward other major contingency types of operations, and we’re just not doing it right now,” he said.

Read more at YahooNews

Also:

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has decided to extend the combat tour of 3,200 soldiers from a 10th Mountain Division brigade in Afghanistan for four months in hopes of quelling the violence.

The decision comes a week after Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with commanders in Afghanistan and heard a request for more troops.

Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, at first asked for about 1,200 troops. Gates said he was “strongly inclined” to meet the commander’s request but wanted to consider other options before deciding how many to hold over.

Ben Abel, a spokesman for Fort Drum, N.Y., where the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division is based, confirmed that Gates had decided to extend the brigade’s tour.

More here

It won’t work, but kudos to them for recognizing that it SHOULD be done.

SANTA FE (AP) — Two New Mexico lawmakers have introduced a measure calling on Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

State Sens. John Grubesic of Santa Fe and Gerald Ortiz y Pino of Albuquerque, both Democrats, said the resolution is a serious effort to try to trigger impeachment proceedings.

New Mexico, where lawmakers are meeting until March 17, would be the first state to pass the resolution, they said.

The measure alleges that Bush and Cheney conspired with others to intentionally mislead Congress and the public about the threat posed by Iraq in order to justify the war.

It also cites the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program and alleges the torture of prisoners and the denial of constitutional rights to enemy combatants.

”This is not a publicity stunt,” Ortiz y Pino told a cheering crowd at a rally at the Capitol on Tuesday. ”This is action that we can take, and it’s an opening for the citizens to act.”

Read more here

Yikes…….

By Chet Brokaw, Associated Press Writer | January 24, 2007

PIERRE, S.D. –A state senator accused of groping a legislative page testified Wednesday that the 18-year-old was like a relative, that he saw nothing wrong with sharing a motel bed with him and that the teenager fabricated his accusation.

The Senate has accused Sen. Dan Sutton of sexual misconduct last February with the page. Sutton was questioned Wednesday before a Senate special committee investigating the accusation.

Asked whether he thought it was appropriate to climb into bed with Austin Wiese, Sutton responded that the page “was like a nephew or a son to me and my wife. I had no concern.”

And that’s where it ended, Sutton said.

“I didn’t do anything,” he said twice.

While it is The Associated Press’ policy not to identify people who say they are the victims of sexual assault, Wiese’s name was used in the Senate committee’s public hearing, which was carried live on the Internet, and has been circulated by other media in the state.

Wiese, now 19, was not present for Sutton’s testimony.

Read more at Boston.com

Michele Bachmann had a really hard time keeping her hands, and mouth, off of Bush. ICK ICK ICK. Someone on another blog said, maybe she’ll give him a blowjob and then we can impeach him. I watched this last night, and it totally creeped me out. This is one whacked out woman.

Watched Scarborough tonight. They were talking about the Presidential hopefuls and how they all voted for the war in Iraq. Someone mentioned “the darling” didn’t vote for it because he wasn’t a Senator yet, speaking of Barack Obama. Scarborough said ” Yeah, he was mowing lawns in Springfield and voting on pothole legislation.” Anyone have the video of this??? I just found that to be a really bizaare statement.

Eric Clapton
River of Tears

Dickhead is in fantasy land. He still hasn’t figured out no one believe a friggin word that comes out of his mouth. He said the non-binding resolution won’t stop them. He’s right about that. He added, “The notion that somehow the effort hasn’t been worth it, or that we shouldn’t go ahead and complete the task, is just dead wrong.” Well yah Dickhead, it’s been worth it for you and your war profiteering friends now, hasn’t it? God I can’t wait until these pricks are out of office. And speaking of which….. shouldn’t HE be impeached for his role in the Plame deal? I think so! Oh, and whatever you do Wolfie, don’t bring up Mary again! Dickhead is verrrrrrry touchy about this!

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday dismissed as “hogwash” the suggestion that blunders may have hurt the administration’s credibility on Iraq and led members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to question President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Baghdad.

In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, conducted a day after Bush delivered his State of the Union address, Cheney was asked to respond to some Republicans in Congress who “are now seriously questioning your credibility, because of the blunders and the failures.”

To that, Cheney answered, “Wolf, Wolf, I simply don’t accept the premise of your question. I just think it’s hogwash.”

Cheney said the administration is committed to moving ahead with its plan to send more troops to Baghdad, even if Congress passes a resolution in opposition.

“It won’t stop us,” he said. “And it would be, I think, detrimental from the standpoint of the troops.”

If U.S. forces were to pull out of Iraq, “we would simply validate the terrorists’ strategy that says the Americans will not stay to complete the task … that we don’t have the stomach for the fight. That’s the biggest threat.”

He added, “The notion that somehow the effort hasn’t been worth it, or that we shouldn’t go ahead and complete the task, is just dead wrong.”

Cheney said the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein was the right move.

More at CNN.com

45.5 Million viewers. Why do you think that is? Is it because Americans so love this man they can’t wait to hear a dynamic speech from him? Is it because Americans are rallying behind the Prez and his escalation of the war in Iraq? Is it because the economy is so great they have just fallen in love with him? Is it because they just KNOW he’s going to come up with some over the top fabulous healthcare plan for America? Is it because they think maybe, by some miracle, the man has mastered the English language and they want to witness it? Naw…that can’t be it. I’ll tell you why I watched it. Because I’m NOT going to take my eye off the ball. This asshole is bound and determined to spend the next two years fucking things up even more than he has already. It’s because the only confidence I have in him and Dickhead is my confidence that they are up to more evil. It’s because I want to see if he, and congress, have figured out yet that we Americans are sick of this shit and we’re paying attention. How about you?

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - President George W. Bush’s call for bipartisan support on a range of domestic issues while sticking to his guns on Iraq played well in the TV ratings, at least compared with his last two State of the Union speeches.

The live, hourlong broadcast of Bush’s address on Tuesday night to a joint session of the newly Democratic-controlled Congress averaged nearly 45.5 million U.S. viewers, Nielsen Media Research reported on Wednesday.

That was up considerably from the 41.7 million who watched last year’s State of the Union, in which Bush defended warrantless U.S. wiretaps of domestic phone calls and urged new energy initiatives, warning that America had become “addicted to oil.”

Even fewer, 38.4 million viewers, tuned in to his 2005 speech — the least watched of his State of the Union addresses — which dwelt at length on Bush’s proposals to revamp Social Security.

Bush tallied his biggest State of the Union audience, 62 million viewers, with a speech he gave in January 2003 as the nation geared up for war in Iraq.

On Tuesday night, Bush defended his unpopular decision to send more U.S. troops to Iraq while urging bipartisan action on such issues as energy, health care and immigration.

The Nielsen tally for his latest speech included viewers on the four major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox — as well as the three leading cable news outlets and Spanish-language broadcasters Telemundo and Univision.

By comparison, the most watched broadcast in terms of regularly scheduled commercial programming on U.S. television on Tuesday was the Fox network’s hit talent show “American Idol,” which drew more than 31 million viewers.

So they’ll get probation. They should let a couple people who got caught with pot out of jail and put these two in. Yah, that’s the ticket…..

A jury found two Cuyahoga County election workers guilty today of charges that they fudged Board of Elections procedures to thwart a countywide ballot recount after the bitterly divisive 2004 presidential election.

The jury convicted Kathleen Dreamer, 40, of Cleveland and Jacqueline Maiden, 59, of Richmond Heights on one felony and one misdemeanor each. They had each been charged with seven counts and were exonerated on five counts apiece, including all charges that they knowingly conspired to break the law and violate their duties. Instead, they were found guilty of being criminally negligent.

The jurors cleared a third coworker, 54-year-old Rosie Grier of Cleveland, on all charges.

Dreamer and Maiden did not make any outward sign of emotion, but their lawyers said afterward they were distressed at verdicts that the defense attorneys said were clear indications of jury confusion.

Read more at the Cleveland Plain Dealer

BAGHDAD, Iraq // U.S. and Iraqi troops battled Sunni insurgents in high-rise buildings on central Baghdad’s Haifa Street today, with snipers on roofs taking aim at gunmen in open windows as Apache attack helicopters chattered overhead. Iraq said 30 militants were killed and 27 captured.

New details also emerged about the downing of a private U.S. security company helicopter on Tuesday, with U.S. and Iraqi officials saying four of five Americans who died in the incident were shot execution’style. Violence was unrelenting in Iraq today, with at least 69 people killed or found dead, including 33 tortured bodies found in separate locations in Baghdad.

With President Bush pushing a controversial plan to increase troops strength in Iraq, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the latest joint raid was aimed at clearing the Haifa Street area of “terrorists and outlaws” targeting residents. He promised such operations would continue as U.S. and Iraqi troops prepare for a broader security crackdown to stanch the sectarian bloodletting that has turned Baghdad into a battlefield.

At 5 a.m. today, Iraqi army and American troops moved into the Sunni stronghold to launch targeted raids in a third bid this month to clear the neighborhood of militants. Armored vehicles massed along Haifa Street, where a median with trees separates four lanes of traffic lined by tall apartment houses built by Saddam Hussein for loyalists and dissidents from other Arab countries, mainly Syria.

Read more at the BaltimoreSun