Never try to fry a house cat

  

you find you are dealing with some sort of 5 star Marine general who pulls rank…

I have some links collected to put up… but moving a little slowly 

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hmmm I just noticed this at the LA Times, picking up on the Sunday TV appearances…

WASHINGTON — Democrats poised to take control of Congress said Sunday that they would press to begin a phased U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq within four to six months, part of an agenda aimed at overhauling key aspects of U.S. policy in the Middle East.

“First order of business is to change the direction of Iraq policy,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who is in line to become chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee next year when Democrats become the majority party in both chambers of Congress.

Senior White House officials countered that setting timetables for U.S. troop withdrawals would weaken the Iraq government and embolden insurgents, but they acknowledged a need for fresh ideas on Iraq and expressed a new willingness to negotiate with Democrats on an array of foreign policy issues.

White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten indicated that the president would block legislation calling for a scheduled withdrawal.

And I see McCain, no shock, is out there calling for more troops and an opinion piece floating about from Kagan and Kristol also exhorting for more sacrificial games…   Fareed weighs in…

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UPDATE, 7:45 am on the Pacific Ocean…

Stumbled over this from Cursor, a full reprint of the Harper’s Ken Silverstein article on Obama… it is located down a little on the left side on the page…

[O]bama was winning support from not only African Americans but also Chicago’s “Lake-front Liberals” and other progressives. He was still largely unknown in Washington circles, but that changed the following month when Vernon Jordan, the well-known power broker and corporate boardmember who chaired Bill Clinton’s presidential transition team after the 1992 election, placed calls to roughly twenty of his friends and invited them to a fund-raiser at his home.

The event marked his entry into a well-established Washington ritual–the gauntlet of fund-raising parties and meet-and-greets through which potential stars are vetted by fixers, donors, and lobbyists. Gregory Craig, an attorney with Williams & Connolly and a longtime Democratic figure who, as special counsel in the White House, had coordinated Bill Clinton’s impeachment defense, met Obama that night. “I liked his sense of humor and the confidence he had discussing national issues, especially as a state senator,” Craig recalled of the event. “You felt excited to be in his presence.” Another thing that Craig liked about Obama was that he’s not seen as a “polarizer,” like such traditional African-American leaders as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. “He gets respect from his adversaries because of the way he treats them,” Craig said. “He doesn’t try to be all things to all people, but he has a way of taking positions you don’t like without making you angry.” [snip]

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… this from Tuston on permanent check points on certain roads inside the US in AZ, AZ STARNET:

Fixed checkpoints inch toward reality
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.13.2006

With Rep. Jim Kolbe out of the picture, the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector has renewed optimism about finally getting permission for permanent checkpoints.

Congress has withheld funding for permanent inspection stations since 1999 and required the sector to move them every seven or 14 days since 2002, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Kolbe, who is leaving after 21 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, opposed the establishment of permanent checkpoints, arguing that they served little purpose if drug- and human-smugglers know where they are.[snip]

… a bit of additional commentary from Tuston from the thread:

Just so you all understand; these checkpoints are within the US, and if I want to buy organic food (un-available in el barrio) I need to have some cock-sucker from the midwest ask ME if I’m a US citizen and have his under-trained puppy sniff my tires.

I make it a point to only reply in gutter spanish (e.g. “que piensas, pendijo” or “por supuesto, perujo”)

BTW comming back through the permanent military checkpoint in mexico on Sunday Night, I noticed 40,000 lbs of Pot (or one semi-trailer full) being unloaded by the soldiers and being loaded into another one…supposedly it was a “bust” but I’d bet you dollars to pesos that those bales of reefer still end up in NY somehow…

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And.. from Who is IOZ a flurry of sharpened butter knives right back at the Democrats…   He picks apart some quotes from the NYT  [thanks to Madman]

[T]he Times article is a good reminder that although they’re more ostentatious about it, the Republicans aren’t the only ones wearing the crazy suit. Howard Dean takes an opportunity in the national media to muse that Iraqi Kurdistan, stripped of the American protectorate, will face a Turkish blitzkrieg of some sort or other, an Ottoman resurgence if you will, like a batty nonagenarian misremembering the dangerous “sick old man of Europe.” It would be, he says, the worst thing that could happen, the sort of statement that’s sure to give rise to some excellent gallows humor in Baghdad.

Somewhere the Arab Woody Allen is shrugging his shoulders, holding his palms up to the air, and saying, “Worse? How could it be worse!?”  [snip]

Reid is not spared… oooo yum!

It’s a particularly fitting irony that the Senate, whose surprise turning was the sparkler on the Democratic cake, will now be in the hands of a crytofascist land speculator who makes it the first order of business to play the enemies-within card and then takes the table with a daring opposition to “fixed timetables for withdrawal.” (Remember, eager Dems, if it isn’t fixed, it isn’t really a timetable.)
 

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UPDATE, 9:30 am…

This is a Reuters report I saw over the weekend… and I think it indicates one, that possibly the electorate solidified quickly post election and two, we can see what will chill the faint courage of the Dems.

Of course it may all be affected what god knows what… Times are fluid.  Hell, very fluid, we are swimming in spilled milk. 

[B]ush’s 31-percent job approval rating, down from 35 percent a week earlier, was a new low in Newsweek’s polling. Some 63 percent disapproved of the Republican president’s job performance, and a full two-thirds agreed that “he won’t be able to get much done” in the last two years of his term.

The drop in Bush’s approval rating came after Wednesday’s resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who had been a lightning rod for criticism of the administration’s handling of the war in Iraq.

While a bare majority of 51 percent called the Democrats’ victory “a good thing,” even more said they were concerned about some of the actions a Democratic Congress might take, including 78 percent who were somewhat or very concerned that it would seek too hasty a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

Another 69 percent said they were concerned that the new Congress would keep the administration “from doing what is necessary to combat terrorism,” and two-thirds said they were concerned it would spend too much time investigating the administration and Republican scandals.
 

Friday, the death toll for November was 23, by the next day 26 – and as I read that I thought, well it is 29 or 32 on the ground in Iraq already…

The Democrats should screw up what ragged courage they have, bank on the fact the electorate has been reminded of “split tickets” (they may not get the WH but they might, no matter what, keep the House for a few cycles) and full steam ahead – to whatever.

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This from Counterpunch…

[T]he Democrats have been elected because Americans are now sick of Iraq. Their enthusiasms die quickly. American expectations for the wars they start are perfectly captured by the image of Bush landing on an aircraft carrier with a big banner behind him saying Mission Accomplished. It’s a blockbuster version of the Homecoming Game with guys in uniforms and cheerleaders and flags, and there is no hint of death or decay. Anything beyond that kind of performance is welcomed like the kid who couldn’t make the team.

I doubt there is widespread concern that Iraqis still huddle in homes with no reliable electricity or clean water, no jobs, and fearful to step into murderous streets. I doubt there is much guilt over having killed half a million of them. I doubt there is guilt about running a secret gulag and torturing helpless captives. I doubt there is guilt about blood-spattered holes like Abu Ghraib. Because if there were such guilt, there would have been a revolt against Bush’s criminal government. [snip]

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UPDATE, 12 Noon

From TAPPED.

UPDATE: See Mike Crowley on an early potential dispute between Baucus and the Dem caucus, regarding authorization allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

Crowley remarks, “Baucus faces re-election in 2008, making him likely to tack rightward to please conservative Montana voters. (Although it’s possible that drug-price negotiation would play well in a Montana that just elected a populist like Jon Tester.)” For what it’s worth, I think Crowley’s “on the other hand” parenthetical is more on the mark. Blocking Medicare’s ability to bargain for cheaper drugs seems like significanly less of an electorally seductive move than backing lavish tax cuts (which Baucus did prior to his 2002 race).

Wait a fucking minute!

One, the Newsweek poll up post indicates American voters are 91% for lower drug prices.  Don’t make promises if the likes of Baucus can undercut them with specious scheisse.  And blubber for 18 months now about the really rather oily Schweitzer of MT and yet-to-be-determined Tester (Conrad Burns HAD to go and Tester did run on a populist medical care platform…) with MT “trending blue”  or rainbow or purplish.. or whatever the 31 Flavors game is that BlogSnots play…

Sirota is running around calling the new hires “Lou Dobbs populists” – I am gagging, the transition to rather more ordinary blogger/pundit for Sirota has not been wonderful…

Go buy spines, everybody!… and the various and sundry publications – all of them, even TNR, should be pushing for change.  Not providing cover to shaft ordinary Americans – and less than one week out from election…

Honestly I never even considered frying the cat…

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Bitch Ph.D looks at the Supreme Court:

Why I haven’t talked about Gonzales v. Carhart / Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood

Because, really, aside from the confusion of having three cases with similar names (Stenberg v. Carhart–in which the ban on D&X was struck down–and the current two cases being argued about a minor variation on the same fucking law, [Attorney General] Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood), I don’t get why this is in front of the court at all.

Part of the plan, sad to say… The WH referred the issue of the 2003 Partial Birth Abortion congressional bill to the Solicitor General… and here we are.

I listened to the recording of the case before the court via Cspan on Sunday… hard to say which way it will go – Clement, the SG, closed heavily on ‘PBA” as infanticide.  You know the US Catholic Bishops were applauding and toasting each other with rare cognacs as they clicked their Prada shod heels (Ratzy’s fav) .. lest they be in Kansas.  And phoning Rome of course… things are going well in the Western Hemi.

Bitch notes a question of Roberts…

And I think we have to view Roberts’ questions (as reported by Slate and the WaPo, respectively) as very revealing:

“If a woman can take into account the impact on the fetus” and its suffering, “why is that beyond the scope of things the Congress can take into account?”

Because, dummy, Congress can’t rule on a case-by-case basis; individual women, by definition, are doing precisely that. Next?

“marginal benefit in safety” from using the procedure is “enough to override the state’s articulated interest?”"

Bzzzt!!! Whose safety are we talking about? Do people no longer have the right to decide which medical risks they are willing to run and which they are not? Don’t we really think that this kind of thing is better judged by medical professionals than it is by lawyers?
 

Yes, not his only one where he wondered why the Congress should not interfere in a medical procedure… BTW, Clarence was silent, and if Alito spoke, I missed it.  Of course, no shock, Scalia and Roberts were guiding and authoritarian.  Kennedy asked a few questions… hard again to guess. 

It was left to Breyer, Ginsberg and a little bit to Souter to speak for sanity.

The worry is the wording of the “PBA” bill is so broad it could be used to further restrict abortion outside of the “PBA” games.  AND… I understand from someone positioned to know, the worry over this case or cases is that, if lost, the Republicans come back with a reworded bill.

We shall see.  I’d love to see a majority Democratic House and Senate thwart the Shulers, Ellsworths + 4 other new members and a few others already there… Casey, Reid (on the all star list at Democrats for Life based on 5 out of 5 votes in the 108th congress) a few others … but I am not holding my breath.  I see a lot of authoritarians in charge on the Democratic side.  Greed, too.

Over and over they either recruited hard liners or more than a few for whom the language of banning is easily couched in the political cover provided by “PBA” banning – with tricky language for ”health of the mother”…

It’s funny, so many online men – and off line as well, lecture ”grow up” (those precise words have been used) about issues of abortion and elections politics (ah there is the money game!)… Alterman, Nathan Newman, Kos and the many Whacks… quite a few… others offer limp fakery, more transparent than used tissues… It has been interesting to watch.

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UPDATE, 5:00 pm

Fifth anniversary… and not a good one…

[N]o official celebrations were held Monday, and no Afghans approached in street interviews knew it was the five-year anniversary. Many smiled when reminded of the Taliban’s fall, though some also lamented the deteriorating security in the country.

A high-level report released Sunday found that violence has risen fourfold over 2005 and that more than 3,700 people have died in 2006 because of insurgency-related violence. [...]

At the city’s central cinema, janitor Jan Mohammed said he was happy when the Taliban fell, thinking Afghanistan would see a new era of freedom and security.

“But it’s not that good now,” he said. “The other big problem today is figuring out how to feed your children.”

Five years after the Taliban’s ouster, poverty is still endemic in Afghanistan, and the cost of living has risen sharply. Many women still suffer from abuse and discrimination, and the drug trade is out of control. And despite the presence of some 40,000 U.S. and NATO troops, the insurgency is unabated. {snip]

I read a report a few weeks ago from a NATO commander on the ground in Afghanistan… who said very bluntly, if we do not turn around Afghanistan, and fast, in a few months, he believes the people will rise up and accept the Taliban back, simply for security.

How’s that Law ’n Order theory [masking chaos] of governing working for ya Imperial America?

Not working here, not working there… it seems designed to fail…

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UPDATE, 4:15 am – Tuesday

Lordy:

 Up to 150 Sunni Muslim men were abducted from the offices of the Higher Education Ministry in central Baghdad this morning in what appeared to be the largest sectarian kidnapping of the Iraq war.

A convoy of around 40 new camouflaged pick-up vehicles was seen surrounding one of the ministry’s research buildings in Karradah, a religiously-mixed neighbourhood, at around 9:30am local time.

Around 80 gunmen dressed as police commandos were then seeing lining up a crowd of men in the car park of the Sunni-led ministry, handcuffing them and leading them away. A civil servant who happened to be in the bank at the time of the raid watched as the gunmen searched the victims’ identity cards, sorting Sunnis from Shias.

“They were checking identity cards in the car park. They picked only the Sunni employees. They even took the man who was just delivering tea,” the witnesss, a Sunni himself, told Reuters. “They gathered them all in the pick-ups. At the same time, I saw two police patrols watching, doing nothing.”  [snip]

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