A Progressive Plan for Iraq and the Fight Against Violent Extremists

September 30 , 2005

The war in Iraq has not made the United States any safer and the Bush administration's complete lack of leadership in bringing this war to a successful conclusion must be addressed. Rather than debate the false choice between "stay the course" and immediate withdrawal, Lawrence Korb and Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress have developed a progressive strategy for Iraq that re-focuses our strategy on fighting terrorist networks, strengthens and rebuilds US ground forces and creates a reasonable timetable for ending the war successfully in Iraq.

• Drawdown 80,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2006 with near total drawdown completed by the end of 2007 and no permanent bases left behind. Rather than keeping our troops in Iraq indefinitely, Korb and Katulis argue that the U.S. should "begin a slow and irreversible drawdown of military forces in order to preserve our all-volunteer Army and refocus all elements of American power on the real threats our country faces." Their strategy consists of two phases. Phase one would occur in 2006 with the drawdown of 80,000 troops out of Iraq by December 31, 2006. The 60,000 remaining U.S. troops would spend 2007 focused on top priorities such as the training of Iraqi security forces, the tightening of Iraq's border, and the tracking down of insurgents with small Special Forces units. Phase two of the drawdown would take place in 2007, and would leave behind a much smaller military force to protect the U.S. embassy and help Iraqi security forces with counterterrorism efforts. The U.S. must also state unambiguously that there will be no permanent bases in Iraq.
  
  
• Redeployment should bring the National Guard and Reserve troops home immediately and send critical forces to fight terrorists in the Persian Gulf, Asia and Africa. The strategic redeployment plan would bring the 46,000 Guard and Reserve troops back home immediately to "focus on shoring up gaps in homeland security." They should no longer be stretched thin by their foreign and domestic duties and should return the policy of spending no more than one year out of five on active duty. Up to two brigades, about 20,000 troops, would be sent to bolster counterterrorism efforts in places like Afghanistan, the Philippines, and Somalia and Sudan. A smaller contingent will remain in Kuwait to strike any terrorist camps and enclaves throughout the region.
  

• Refocus our diplomatic, communications and reconstruction efforts. Strategic redeployment also requires renewed external efforts to fight violent extremists through other means. Our rhetoric on democracy building must be matched by equally compelling diplomatic and financial commitments to make the transition to democracy a reality.

Read more about the problems with the Bush administration approach and the progressive alternative from Lawrence Korb and Brian Katulis from the Center for American Progress.

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Dubya Nicknames

Here is a truncated list of names Dubya has given folks over the years (click the title for the complete list). I am convinced that he is either mentally challenged or has the mind of a child. Don't we deserve better than a man-child running our country...


Joe Allbaugh--Big Country
Tony Blair--Landslide
Barbara Boxer--Ali
Andrew Card Tangent--Man
Susan Collins--Sweet Susan
John Cornyn--Corndog
Maureen Dowd--Cobra
Barney Frank--Sabretooth
David Gregory--Little Stretch
Karen Hughes--High Prophet, The Enforcer, Hurricane Karen
Ted Kennedy--Senator
George Miller--El Grande Jorge
Ben Nelson Nellie--Benny, Benator
Colin Powell--Balloonfoot
Vladimir Putin--Pootie-Poot
Condoleezza Rice--Guru
John Sweeney--Congressman Kick-Ass
George Tenet--Brother George
Tommy Thompson--Double T
Fred Upton--Freddo
Ann Veneman--Bullets
Paul Wellstone--Pablo

Tom DeLay Indicted!

So now that he has been indicted, will the people of Sugarland finally realize that this criminal does not belong anywhere near the House of Representatives.  He belongs in prison.  I think this increases the chances of Democrat running against him next year.  We'll see...



From CNN.com, breaking news:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay indicted on one count of criminal conspiracy by Texas grand jury, according to Travis County clerk's office.

More from the Austin American-Statesman:

A Travis County grand jury today indicted U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on one count of criminal conspiracy, jeopardizing the Sugar Land Republican's leadership role as the second most powerful Texan in Washington, D.C.

The charge, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years incarceration, stems from his role with his political committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, a now-defunct organization that already had been indicted on charges of illegally using corporate money during the 2002 legislative elections.

The grand jury, however, took no action against Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, Texas Association of Business President Bill Hammond or state Reps. Dianne Delisi and Beverly Woolley, both of whom sit on the political committee's board, for their roles in the election.

The grand jury's term ended today.

Delay's defense team will hold a press conference in Austin later this afternoon. The team includes defense attorneys Bill White and Steve Brittain of Austin and Dick DeGuerin of Houston.

State law bans corporate money being spent in connection with political campaigns and Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, has spent almost three years investigating whether Republican groups and their business allies violated that ban. The groups helped elect a Republican majority to the state Legislature which, in turn, drew new Congressional districts that benefited Republican candidates.

DeLay and his associates insisted the corporate money was legally spent on committee overhead or issue advertising and not campaign-related activity.

An indictment does not force DeLay to resign as a member of Congress, but the GOP's rules demand that he resign his post as majority leader as he fights the charges. Congressional Republicans earlier tried to drop that requirement, citing Earle's investigation as a political vendetta, but they ultimately maintained the rule after withering criticism....

Progressive Ideas for Budget Cuts

September 22, 2005

House conservatives unveiled a plan for $500 billion in budget cuts yesterday, including steps to slash vital programs for middle and working class Americans like student loans, health care programs, and federal pension programs. It's possible to cut far more unnecessary federal spending in less time and also uphold the principles of fiscal responsibility and concern for the common good. The Center for American Progress has developed a number of suggestions that would provide more progressive ways to save money by rolling back tax cuts for the wealthy, eliminating wasteful pork, and re-orienting defense priorities. Potential ideas for savings include:

• Roll back President Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for the richest 1 percent.  This simple measure will save the government $327 billion – more than enough to cover the estimated costs of the Katrina clean-up and reconstruction. We should also stop any future tax cuts for millionaires set to come into effect next year and forget about repealing the estate tax for the richest Americans. It's about time conservatives asked for a little sacrifice from America's economic elites.
  
  
• Cut wasteful pork from the transportation and energy bills and eliminate unnecessary agricultural subsidies. We can save more than $20 billion by cutting out earmarks and pork set asides for congressmen and lobbyists. To start, we suggest eliminating roughly half of the 6,371 special earmarked projects of the 2005 transportation bill and then rolling back the tax breaks, loan guarantees, and other subsidies for the electricity, coal, nuclear, natural gas and oil industries in the 2005 energy bill. We can save another roughly $33 billion by doing away with export subsidies, reducing cotton subsidies, and reducing maximum payment limits on what producers can receive from $360,000 to $250,000.
  
  
• Eliminate $200 billion in unnecessary and counterproductive weapons programs. The largest savings can be found in the bloated defense budget. Without harming any of our military efforts or plans for fighting terrorists, we can eliminate several Defense Department weapons programs that are either unnecessary, such as the F/A 22 Raptor and the DD(X), or are counter to our national security interests, like space weapons and "bunker buster" nuclear bombs.
  

To visit the Talking Points archives, please click here.

Bush's speech was a flop

His approval rating dropped 2% in two seperate polls after the speech.  The presidency of George W. Bush is over.  Possibly the quickest fall to lame-duckery ever.  He legacy has been destroyed, leadership wasted, and polical capital squandered.

 

Rasmussen: Thirty-five percent (35%) of Americans now say that President Bush has done a good or excellent job responding to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. That's down from 39% before his speech from New Orleans.  The latest Rasmussen Reports survey shows that 41% give the President poor marks for handling the crisis, that's up from 37% before the speech.

 

SUSA:  The number of Americans who now approve of the President's response to Hurricane Katrina is down: 40% today compared to 42% before he announced the Gulf Opportunity Zone" in a speech last week. "The number of Americans who disapprove of the President's response to Katrina is up: 56% today compared to 52% before the speech.

Behind the Curtain

I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It's enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it... jump to certain conclusions.

Massachusetts is starting to almost live up to its liberal reputation

BOSTON — The state Legislature voted Thursday to override Gov. Mitt Romney´s veto of a measure that will expand access to emergency contraception.

The measure, which the Republican governor vetoed in July, will require hospital emergency room doctors to offer the medication to rape victims. It also will make the medication available without a prescription.

The Senate voted unanimously 37-0 to override the veto. In the House, the vote was 139-16 to override.

Right-Wing Plots Further Destruction Post-Katrina

September 15, 2005

President Bush plans to address the nation tonight to outline his ideas and vision for post-Katrina reconstruction. If history is any guide, Americans can expect the president and his right-wing allies to turn Katrina aid efforts into another ideological experiment for fringe social and economic ideas. Rather than using public concern and power to help victims of Katrina, conservatives are seeking to cut taxes for unaffected citizens, suspend wage laws and environmental regulations, and limit health care provisions.

• Conservatives believe that suspending fair wages for workers is a good way to support local communities. On September 8, 2005, President Bush suspended application of the Davis-Bacon Act, a federal law governing workers' pay on federal contracts in the Hurricane Katrina-damaged areas. According to the Washington Post, the Act "sets a minimum pay scale for workers on federal contracts by requiring contractors to pay the prevailing or average pay in the region. Suspension of the act will allow contractors to pay lower wages." Conservatives are now seeking to cut wages for service workers in the region as well.
  
  
• Conservatives believe that denying health care access for hurricane victims is compassionate policy. Although thousands of displaced Katrina victims are poor and lack basic health care coverage, conservative leaders have already signaled that they have no interest in expanding eligibility for Medicaid. The Wall St. Journal reports that the "White House appears cool to any expansion" of Medicaid for Katrina survivors, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was "not convinced" it was needed.
  
  
• Progressives believe in common sense solutions to promote the common good and provide opportunities for all Americans, not just the few. Reconstruction and recovery of the Gulf Coast should be guided common sense policies that benefit people, not ideologues. American Progress has some ideas: 1) Guarantee adequate health care to all of Katrina's victims by expanding the Disaster Relief Medicaid program; 2) Integrate the Gulf's poor—residentially, economically, and otherwise by expanding Section 8 housing and improving mass transit; 3) Maximize employment of Katrina victims in reconstruction projects; and 4) Stop disaster profiteering through independent oversight and vigorous enforcement of laws against price gouging by oil companies, gas stations, and financial institutions.

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Gay Republicans

I hate [gay] Republicans!  I saw one driving back from lunch, proudly displaying his "I Stand with the President: George W. Bush" bumper sticker on the back of his Urban Assault Vehicle.  What a disgrace to both the human race, and to us queers with a little common sense, and a thought in our heads.  Go Cheney yourself, Gay Republicans!

Good Thoughts

Every once in a while things happen to give me a glimmer of hope that the entire population of the U.S. are not brain-dead androids.  I just heard a commercial on the local Air America affiliate  that listeners had donated about six (6) full-size U-Haul trucks worth of donations to support the Hurricane Katrina refugees being housed in Veterens' Colleseium.  Way to go Progressive Phoenix!  You Jeff Flake freaks, shame on you!

Drownie, you're doing a heckuva job...

Is that why you found a horse's head in your bed this morning and was forced to resign?  Guess so.  Yes, it is true, Drownie resigned today.  Excellent!  Now let's turn our focus on the real root of the problem...the Criminal-in-Chief...George W. Bush.

Right-Wing Congress Stacks Investigative Body and Loots Katrina Aid

September 8, 2005

Our nation's right-wing congressional leaders yesterday attempted to one-up President Bush in the shame-and-embarrassment category. With only Republican members in attendance, House Speaker Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Frist announced the creation of a GOP-dominated "investigative" committee—created behind closed doors by members of the majority party alone—to uncover what went wrong with Hurricane Katrina. Congress then announced that debate on a $52 billion Katrina aid package would be limited to a mere 40 minutes—just enough time to ensure that no one learns about all the special interest, corporate pork stuffed into the disaster relief bill. Outrage is in full order today. 

• The clearly partisan "Hurricane Katrina Joint Review Committee" should be denounced as a farce. Adding to President Bush's fanciful claim that he will get to the bottom of his own failures, Congress yesterday devised a congressional counterpart to whitewash matters and shift blame from their end of Pennsylvania Avenue. According the Washington Post, the investigative committee set up by Hastert and Frist "will include only members of Congress, with Republicans outnumbering Democrats by a yet-to-be-determined ratio. The commission, which will have subpoena powers, will investigate the actions of local, state and federal governments before and after the storm that devastated New Orleans and other portions of the Gulf Coast."
  
  
• The $52 billion Katrina aid package is set to be passed with almost no debate and no scrutiny of what greedy lobbyists and untoward congressmen stuffed into the bill.The House of Representatives, at the urging of conservative leadership, voted to limit floor debate of the Katrina aid package to a scant 40 minutes and prevent any amendments from being offered. According to Representative Louis Slaughter (D-NY), prior to precluding the possibility of amendments, "no one had yet to even see a copy of the legislation." This means no one will know who gets what before hand, how it will be distributed, who will benefit, and who is taking advantage of taxpayers. There will be no discussion of how to actually fix the problems that created the mess in the first place and no accountability for failures.
  
  
• When Americans are down and out, count on conservative leaders to show who they truly care about—themselves and their corporate backers. With tens of thousands of people displaced, and utter devastation across much of the Gulf Coast, our nation's right-wing leaders have really stepped up to the plate. They failed to respond to the disaster; then tried to shift the blame and whitewash their own failures; and now want to close off scrutiny of their actions and take advantage of relief funding to enrich special interests. A fitting way to close the door on this ugly period in American history. 

To visit the Talking Points archives, please click here.

Name change for FEMA

Under Clinton we could appropriately call FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Under the incompetent-in-chief, it is now known as Failure to Effectively Manage Anything.

Thoughts

Republicans Kill

Roberts as Chief

Jesus.  I don't think this guy is qualified to sit on the Supreme Court as an Associate Judge.  Now Incompetent-in-Chief nominates him for Chief Justice?  The Senate should not allow this man (George not John) to ever make another decision for as long as he squats in the White House.  George has killed more people on his watch here in the U.S. since probably the Civil War.  But alas, the Democrats don't have a spine and will let it slide yet again.  And the Riech-wing gives George blowjobs any chance they get, so they won't do anything either.

Administration Tries to Shift Blame for Its Own Incompetence

September 6, 2005

True to form, the president's hatchet man, Karl Rove, began executing a public relations effort over the weekend to shift blame for the administration's failures in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina onto to hard-pressed state and local officials in New Orleans and Louisiana. Although the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had been granted full authority to coordinate relief efforts and assistance prior to the disastrous hurricane, administration officials failed to effectively use their authority to provide swift and comprehensive relief efforts when it mattered most. 

• The Bush administration took full responsibility for coordinating the rescue and relief efforts days before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. The White House effort to shift the blame for the response to Katrina contradicts their public statements before the storm hit. An August 27 declaration on the White House website "authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts" The order specifies that "FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency." Jane Bullock, former FEMA chief of staff, said "The moment the president declared a federal disaster, it became a federal responsibility…The federal government took ownership over the response."

 

• Despite this clear authority, administration officials failed to properly execute their duties to protect and assist citizens in New Orleans and other areas.As levees broke, flood waters rose, and thousands of people became stranded in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, Bush administration officials were bickering about lines of authority and bureaucratic red tape. Although there were clear ways to get people out of New Orleans and provide medical and relief support for those left behind, DHS and FEMA failed in their basic duty to aid and assist victims of the hurricane.
  
  
  
• In a further slap to the face, President Bush and Karl Rove are trying to shift the blame for their own incompetence and negligence during this crisis. Bush and Rove are trying to claim now that state officials in Louisiana were "slow to call for outside help." The reality is that Louisiana state officials reached out to the federal government for assistance before the storm hit but got little in return. On August 27, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco sent a detailed letter to President Bush requesting assistance because "this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster."

To visit the Talking Points archives, please click here.

Apoplectic

I am this time... I have not been this apoplectic in a long time towards this administration. The (non) response for the worst natural disaster in American history is truly disgraceful. As I posted in the previous post, conservative policies made the situation worse in New Orleans, and now this cowardice Administration remains on vacation several days after this hurricane struck let alone was predicted. It is one thing for Condi to be buying $3000 shoes and attending a Broadway show in NYC...I mean she is ONLY the Sec'y of State afterall. But what excuse do both Cheney and Bush have...where the fuck is Cheney?? I have not heard from this guy in months. Is he dead? Would we know if he was? And Jesus Fucking Christ, this hurricane was predicted to be a Cat5 on Saturday Morning, bearing down on New Orleans. What did Bush do? Stay in Crawford. When the hurricane was slamming just east of New Orleans with 150 mph winds, what was Bush doing? Golfing here in Arizona and cutting cake with the supposed independent John McCain. Failed leadership by a failure President.

I have to say, though, thank god the media is pissed. And they want answers...we all want answers. Anderson Cooper looked and sounded like he was going to cry while interviewing Sen. Mary Landreau (DINO-LA). Paula Zahn is demanding answers from Michael Brown, FEMA Director. Ted Koppel is screaming to Brown about the people in the Convention Center. The Manchester Union-Leader (an extremely right-wing paper in NH) is saying Bush is failed leader. Now the director of the Louisiana Emergency Management is calling Bush a national disgrace. He is.

Why was not every available plane, train, bus, automobile, boat, and bicycle routed to New Orleans to get people out of the city last weekend? And for Christ sakes why do these people not have food and water still?? Now we learn that the Astrodome can only accomodate 5000-8000 rather than the 25000 originally planned. Both Chertoff and the FEMA director are claiming they did not know about the thousands being held up in the Convention Center?? Where the fuck is the leadership?

Furthermore, if the Democrats do not highlight the abject failure of this administration in handling this...I don't know. Here is what I have to say to all the reich-wing talking heads in this country who are criticizing all of us for politicizing the disaster...FUCK YOU! YOUR GOD DAMNED PRESIDENT POLITICIZED IT BY NOT FUNDING THE LEVEE REINFORCEMENT AND ALLOWING THIS TO HAPPEN. HE POLITICIZED BY STAYING ON VACATION WHEN HIS COUNTRY NEEDED HIM MOST. HIS FAILED POLICIES OF TAX CUTS AND A WAR OF CHOICE (sending our National Guard to Iraq when they should be here) POLITICIZED IT. HE POLITICIZED THIS JUST LIKE HE POLITICIZED 9/11...FUCK YOU!!

To end my rant on something positive, please if you can, donate to the American Red Cross. I have and will do so again tomorrow. It is our moral duty to help out where we can. If the President will not lead, let us the people do it for him.

CONSERVATIVES HELPED THIS HAPPEN

By Dan Pashman
Senior Producer
Morning Sedition

“As terrible as it is, this attack could be miniscule if, in fact, God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians…all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say, 'you helped this happen.'"
- Rev. Jerry Falwell, September 13, 2001

Who can forget Jerry Falwell’s infamous post-9/11 indictment of America? “You helped this happen,” Falwell said to the majority of Americans, who disagree with him on a majority of issues.

Now, a conservative group called Columbia Christians for Life has proclaimed that Hurricane Katrina was another one of God’s punishments, citing as evidence the supposed resemblance between the hurricane’s image on a weather map, and a fetus.

Trying to refute such claims from these zealots is truly an exercise in futility. But searching for explanations after a disaster of Katrina’s magnitude is not. And if you do in fact search for those explanations, you’ll reach an unavoidable conclusion:

Hurricane Katrina may have been an act of God. But the level of death and destruction it caused was not. That was an act of conservatism.

It is conservative policies that made this natural disaster unnaturally catastrophic. I say to conservatives, you have blood on your hands today. I point the finger in your face and say, “You helped this happen.”

Conservative policies have led to an increase in poverty across the nation, especially in New Orleans, one of the poorest major cities in America. About 150,000 people in New Orleans lived below the poverty line before Katrina, 100,000 of them in abject poverty, making less than $8,000 a year. Their poverty left them with nowhere to go, and no means of escape, as the hurricane bore down on their homes.

Conservative policies have led to more global warming, which scientists agree has already begun producing more intense hurricanes and storms. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, a former Republican Party Chairman and longtime GOP operative, has seen his own state ravaged by Katrina. But he was vital in helping to convince the Bush administration to squash the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, and pushed Bush to go back on his campaign promise to regulate carbon dioxide. Governor Barbour would dare express grief over the deaths that he himself enabled.

Conservative policies have led to a war in Iraq based on lies, and tax cuts for the rich, both of which, we know for a fact, took money directly away from vital hurricane preparedness work in New Orleans. On nine occasions in 2004 and 2005, The New Orleans Times-Picayune specifically cited the cost of the Iraq War as a reason for the shortfall in hurricane- and flood-control funds. The levees that gave way under Katrina’s pressure were supposed to be upgraded with money that ended up in Halliburton’s coffers.

Conservative policies have also led to the National Guard’s misuse and abuse, leaving the Gulf Coast without the personnel and equipment vital to a recovery effort of this magnitude. More people will die on the Gulf Coast as they await their would-be saviors, who are in Iraq, victims themselves of conservative policies.

There can be no doubt that while Hurricane Katrina was not preventable, much of the death and destruction left in its wake was. I say to conservatives, you have blood on your hands today. I point the finger in your face and say, “You helped this happen.”