Feeling Good Tonight?

I hate to be a spoiler, but this report isn't at all encouraging...

PEEK: U.S. Plans to Attack Iran Revealed

David Swanson: A new report concludes that the U.S. has made major preparations to attack Iran, and that it will likely target much more than just weapons or nuclear facilities [...]

The verbage is certainly heating up.  Don't you wonder though if that's not BECAUSE of the report mentioned above? Just moving the chess pieces around in a game we'll never win..

Bush warns of Iranian ‘nuclear holocaust’

In 2002 and 2003, in making the case for a war with Iraq, the president and his team would frequently tell Americans that we couldn’t wait for actual proof to justify an invasion, because the “smoking gun could be a mushroom cloud.” In 2007, in describing a possible confrontation with Iran, Bush has decided to be [...]

Tags: Iran, Attack Iran

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Lighter Side

Goodness knows there's enough bad stuff floating around these days.  The Arkansas Times folks snagged an interesting perspective on our little corner of the world, courtesy of a Honolulu newspaper!

Paradise Hawaiian-style

You know how about every third Arkie thinks Hawaii -- huh WHY ya -- is the dream vacation destination. Well get a load of this humongous feature story about a dream vacation in Honolulu's major newspaper. The writer loves him some Ozarks and stops in Arkansas from Eureka to Paris to [...]

Tags: Arkansas Vacation, Ozarks Vacation, Hawaii

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The Need For a Draft

Having zigged and zagged my way through the Military Draft during the Vietnam War (thanks to a student deferment that almost didn't work one semester), the hair still stands up on the back of my neck whenever the subject comes up.  A U.S. Marine, writing in Newsweek, makes a compelling case for why we need a draft, if we're going to continue fighting in Iraq. It all comes down to money and manpower.  And he says a draft could help both. Of course, if we weren't over there at all......

Why We Need a Draft: A Marine's Lament

He was in the firefights of Fallujah. He saw gaps in America's arsenal that he believes can only be filled when America's elite puts its sons on the battlefield. A plea for selective service [...]

Tags: Military Draft

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Excellent Question

And Americans deserve an explanation from Hillary Clinton. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...well...

Journal: Mailman and family major Clinton donors?

How does it happen that the family of a mail carrier who makes $49,000 and his wife, a homemaker – a family that also owns a gift shop, but lives in a 1,280-square-foot house in the flight path of San Francisco International Airport – have donated a combined $45,000 to the state and national campaigns of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton? The Wall Street Journal is asking that question today, and answering with a comparison of the campaign contributions of the Paw family and a wealthy New York businessman which match nearly date for date, dollar for dollar. The contributions from [...]

UPDATE:  MediaMatters hints it may not be as it first appeared. Duck, feel free to waddle off...no more quacking...

JustHillary asked, "How did poor family donate $45,000 [to Clinton camp]?" but facts reported by WSJ tell different story

Tags: Clinton Campaign Contributions, Paw Family, Hsu

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Leading The World

I'm thinking this may not be as staggering as it first appears, when you consider there are hunters who might have a dozen or more guns.  Still, it's enough to put us at the top of the heap...

Staggering Report: 90 Guns Per Every 100 US Citizen

The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said. U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by [...]

Tags: Guns, U.S. Gun Ownership

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The Government's Own Figures

These aren't from some left-wing think tank.  Numbers right from the U.S. Census Bureau. Mostly thumbs-down on economic improvements..

US Census Bureau Data: Bush Policies Victimize Children and Working Families

Low and middle income families have lost ground in what the Census Bureau called an uneven economic recovery. Only persons of retirement age or those in the very highest income brackets made gains. Everyone else lost ground during Bush's so-called "recovery". The Census Bureau called "unprecedented" the increase in poverty for working American households. "The new Census figures are disappointing for the fifth year of an economic recovery -- showing a significant decline in poverty for people over 65 but [...]

Tags: Census, Economic Recovery, Poverty

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The Olbermann Ratings

Before we dive into the meat of the evening, a quick update on how Olbermann did in the ratings with Sunday night's special edition of Countdown on NBC (not MSNBC). As someone who's been in that business, allow me to say that John at Crooks and Liars gets it right - he finished back in the pack, but still with 4+ times as many viewers as usual on MSNBC.  That's the big number.  You're never going to get huge audiences with a news/politics show right before a football game! Duh!

Olbermann’s NBC Ratings

Without much promotion Keith did very good for the first time on Sunday. This isn’t a new day for Countdown yet. NBC wasn’t airing the pre-game show “Football Night in America,” so a slot opened up and they took it. The upshot: in total viewers it beat “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?” on Fox. But [...]

UPDATED with info that Olbermann's Sunday performance killed Bill O'Reilly's ratings any night on Fox...Good point, my friend. Good Point, Even if they did water down the show.

Countdown Up On NBC

Last night’s broadcast of Countdown on the mothership, NBC, was a major coup for Keith Olbermann and his MSNBC program. For all the clamoring for attention that goes on amongst the cable news kiddies, they are all fighting for slices of a relatively small pie. The ratings leader, Bill O’Reilly, averages about 2 million viewers a [...]

Tags: Olbermann, NBC

Gonzales Resigns

Welcome to Monday evening, my friends.  It's not too difficult to figure out how to kick off this evening's posts. Gonzales is out. For your reading enjoyment, a collection of updates about the Alberto's decision to call it quits.  And, more importantly, what that means and who the successor might be.

GONZALES RESIGNS, ESCAPES IMPEACHMENT, ACCOUNTABILITY

Guest-blogged by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review Word that U.S. Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales resigned on Friday has been leaked to the press, apparently by officials at the vacation home of George W. Bush in Texas: Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation, submitted his to President Bush by telephone on [...]

Bye Bye Alberto

It is a testament to the utter failure of the Bush Administration that even the Kewpie Doll from Hell™ Michelle Malkin has taken the full swan dive and is swimming away from the sinking Ship of State as fast as any rat ever swam: Back in May, I said I wouldn’t be shedding tears and my [...]

Leahy Comments on Gonzales Resignation

From Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT): “Under this Attorney General and this President, the Department of Justice suffered a severe crisis of leadership that allowed our justice system [...]

CNN: Bush Plans To Install Inexperienced, Bush Loyalist Clay Johnson At Homeland Security

This morning, CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux reported that “very senior level sources” inside the administration are telling her that Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff will replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Additionally, these sources say Chertoff will be replaced at Homeland Security by Clay Johnson III, the Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management [...]

And, from the right; criticism -

The Democrat Smear Machine Claims Another Victim

Democrats may be patting themselves on the back right now, but this just another example of Democrats repeating a lie over and over and over enough that the lie was accepted as conventional wisdom..Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned, ending [...]

Tags: Gonzales, Chertoff, Johnson

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Chertoff??

Let's focus more on the possibility that the Bush Administration will nominate Michael Chertoff as Attorney General. That's not sitting well at all with some of the more progressive bloggers tonight...

No to Chertoff as AG

There are no positive developments with the Bush administration. All movement is retrograde. Always. What this means is that the welcome resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is not something to applaud but, rather, an opportunity for mischief. The rumor mill has it that Bush will nominate Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff to replace Alberto Gonzales. Democrats should absolutely refuse to confirm this nomination. But more on that below. Another concern is Bush's reported intention to replace Chertoff at the DHS with his prep-school buddy Clay Johnson III. Clay Johnson [...]

UPDATE:  Someone else feels the same -

How Dems should proceed on new AG

Glenn Greenwald’s perspective on this is a helpful guide to Senate Dems. This is a real moment of truth for the Democratic Congress. Democrats, who have offered up little other than one failure after the next since taking power in January, can take a big step toward redeeming themselves here. No matter what, they must ensure [...]

Tags: Gonzales, Chertoff, Johnson

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And the Concensus Is...

Gonzales never really knew what an Attorney General is supposed to do.  Perhaps he KNEW, but was shoehorned into being something else..

Worst. AG. Ever.

There will be plenty of analysis in the coming days and weeks about Alberto Gonzales’ tenure as Attorney General, but with the news still unfolding this morning, a few thoughts come to mind: * Gonzales was probably the worst Attorney General in American history. He viewed his responsibilities as those of the president’s lawyer, instead of [...]

UPDATE: The Politico has a pretty good summary of reactions...

Tags: Gonzales

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