Kevin Drum does the heavy lifting and talks about some huge implications he's seeing in recent poll numbers.
The Myth of the Permanent Majority
The Pew survey I linked to yesterday showed some pretty stunning reversals for the Republican Party, and I think it's worth taking a minute to deconstruct what the numbers show. The party ID catastrophe, in [...]
Tags: Pew Survey, Republican Party, GOP
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But, no surprise, either.
Gates admits U.S. military not ready for new conflict.
“We would not be able to achieve our goals on the timelines that we’ve set for ourselves in terms of being successful in that other conflict,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. “It would take a little longer and we would not be as precise. We would not have as many precision weapons. … It would [...]
Tags: Robert Gates, Iraq War, Iran
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Just keeping track of the latest polls for the 2008 Presidential election. I know, I know. It's almost too early to even pay attention to the numbers, but it's worth a quick glance.
New Polls: Iowa, New Hampshire, Texas, Arkansas
American Research Group is out with a new batch of presidential polls from Iowa, New Hampshire, Texas and Arkansas. Among Democrats, Sen. Hillary Clinton leads in every race, though John Edwards is running just one point behind in Iowa and Sen. Barack Obama is just two points behind in Texas. It's clear that Tom Vilsack's withdrawal from the race has boosted Edwards in Iowa. Among Republicans, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain are [...]
Tags: 2008 Prersidential Poll, American Research Group, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain
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Again. More reports. Ignored by the Administration.
‘The entire country was one big ammo dump’
Remember the debacle at Al Qaqaa? In 2004, we learned that the administration was given warnings about a massive ammunitions site, which Bush officials decided to ignore. About a dozen U.S. troops guarded the sprawling facility. As a result, Iraqi looters loaded powerful explosives into pickup trucks and drove away with about 380 tons of [...]
UPDATE: And, as a result...
Half of all U.S. casualties in Iraq have been caused by unsecured munitions. You know, the ones that were in caches throughout the country that were ignored because we didn't have enough troops to occupy the country and didn't [...]
Tags: Al Qaqaa, Ammunitions Site, Ammo Dump
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There's a good one going over at Daily Kos -
He's whining again. He rejects all notions of accountability. Update: Veto, veto, veto, veto. Update II: MSNBC's idiot reporter, "Bush has the [...]
Tags: Veto, Iraq War, Military Funding
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John Dean. He's been through this situation before. He knows how presidencies operate. I'm willing to bet that he's pretty darn much "on target" right now.
Executive Privilege And The Unilateral Executive Self-Delusion Of George W. Bush
John Dean has some fantastic analysis today on the issues of executive privilege and the unitary executive theory. It makes for a compelling read in terms of historical and philosophical context — and personal undercurrents within the current Bush Administration, [...]
Tags: John Dean, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush
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Not likely to become law, but a striking example of how the balance of power has shifted in Congress.
House passes Iraq bill, Pelosi scores big win
Talk about your hard-fought victories, this one looked like it might not happen at all. The House Democratic leadership put together the “U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health and Iraq Accountability Act,” which, among other things, would set a timeline to bring troops home from Iraq by Sept. 1, 2008. It represents the biggest shift in [...]
UPDATE: Well, not everybody on the liberal side of things is impressed. Our friend, Magpie, wanted more...
With this kind of a victory, who needs defeat?
I just heard that the House of Representatives has narrowly approved a spending measure that includes a timetable for withdrawing US troops from Iraq. I'm sorry, but it doesn't seem to me that allowing Dubya to keep going with his doomed 'surge' until October 2008 is any sort of victory for opponents of the Iraq war. I've tried to write a post describing why I'm so [...]
Tags: Troop Withdrawal, Iraq War, Withdrawal Deadline
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Did it go right to the top of the Bush Administration? Very interesting possibility outlined here! An, by the way, I'm confused about the timeframe. Others are calling it a 16-Day gap.
Was the 18-day gap because Bush was on vacation
The Bush administration turned over thousands of document, including emails, regarding the firing of the US Attorneys. There was an 18 day gap during which no emails were sent. Many of us suspected that the emails were either deleted or that the Bushies refused to turn them over. But CREW has come up with a third, intriguing possibility. The 18 day gap took place during a time in which Bush was on vacation and traveling. Did the gap occur because [...]
Tags: U.S. Attorneys, Bush Administration, Email Gap
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More Administration shenanignans.
Full Circle in Missouri: Even Before Cummins, Bush DoJ Was All About Politics in the Show-Me State
New evidence today that the Bud Cummins firing is actually at the tail-end of a long string of actions by the Bush Justice Department meant to assert pro-Republican influence over Missouri's electoral and political sphere. Salon.com yesterday published a blockbuster piece that provides evidence that Bush and Alberto Gonzales were using U.S. Attorney appointments to muck around in Missouri politics even before they began leaning on Bud Cummins in the midst of his fee office investigation. Salon writes [...]
Tags: Bud Cummins, U.S. Attorney Purge, Missouri Photo ID Law
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I've been telling you, all along, that Arkansas' Bud Cummins was going to be a key figure in the U.S. Attorneys' Purge. Shor 'nuff, he's headline news at the Washington Post today. via Democratic Underground:
E-Mails show administration schemed for months to make Rove aide U.S. Attorney in Arkansas
Two months before Bud Cummins was fired as U.S. attorney in Little Rock, a protege of presidential adviser Karl Rove was maneuvering with the Justice Department to take his place. Last April, Tim Griffin, a Rove aide and longtime GOP operative, sent the attorney general's chief of staff a flatter [...]
UPDATE: It wasn't only Cummins...
New Emails Show USA Purge Clearly Political
Yes, Alberto flat-out lied to Congress about the Tim Griffin installation in the Arkansas US attorney (USA) slot. It turns out that both the White House and Justice were working to dump Bud Cummins and replace him with political hack and Rove lieutenant Griffin as far back as early 2005, even thought Gonzales told Congress it wasn’t the case. And now another USA [...]
Tags: U.S. Attorneys, Bud Cummins, Attorney Purge
Tags: Margaret Chiara
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