I can't tolerate any Clintons anymore. I will do what I can, so that even their spawn can't lure me with her siren song. I may not be able to help myself, even tied to a mast, so I must make a rule you can hold me accountable for. I will never vote for any Democrat who has a C in their last name. Everyone with a C goes down as collateral damage - so be it. It is a little preventive first strike. Now I feel better. Here is my reasoning and confession.

Now it is true I have never voted in any election but this time is different. I am legally registered in my state. I am quite ready to pull the trigger, so to speak, for Obama...and only Obama. If McCain wins in November it is only the fault of the Clintons (and I do include Chelsea here - she is a double C!) for driving me to this desperate show of self-righteousness. HRC could have pulled out when we pleaded, reasoned, wished, hoped, cajoled, emailed, blogged, hounded, organized, canvassed, phone banked, insulted, attacked and at times just pouted in the digital corner here. But NO - NO she comes back and wins Ohio and Texas in our faces when we thought we had her like a turtle on its back. Ooops I just disrespected RI (and won RI too!) Go 50 state strategy!

You managed to make it acceptable to toss red Daily Meat to the faithful on DKos regardless of source, propriety or impact on the party. This blog was originally designed by its owner, Kos, as a way to provide the democratic party with an alternative to the republican hate machine. It acknowledges a range of beliefs within our party and implies a need for acceptance, tolerance and civility.

"This is a Democratic blog, a partisan blog. One that recognizes that Democrats run from left to right on the ideological spectrum, and yet we're all still in this fight together. We happily embrace centrists like NDN's Simon Rosenberg and Howard Dean, conservatives like Martin Frost and Brad Carson, and liberals like John Kerry and Barack Obama. Liberal? Yeah, we're around here and we're proud. But it's not a liberal blog. It's a Democratic blog with one goal in mind: electoral victory. And since we haven't gotten any of that from the current crew, we're one more thing: a reform blog. The battle for the party is not an ideological battle. It's one between establishment and anti-establishment factions. And as I've said a million times, the status quo is untenable."

AP February 21, 2008
Sky Harbor Airport was jammed today with corporate private planes as  lobbyists converged from Washington D.C. to Phoenix to get in the McCain "strategy session in the rustic cabin". This was an even larger gathering at Sky Harbor than the almost 400 privates jets that arrived for the recent Super Bowl.  After reading today's Washington Post article, they formed what can only be called snake ball that rolled through the General Aviation terminal to awaiting limousines.

Chanting alternately: U-S-A and S-t-r-a-i-g-h-t T-a-l-k, they rushed towards drivers holding placards stenciled with McCain along the top and the names of various companies funding the scrum in red, white and blue. The shortage of limousines required companies to shuttle in a supply from Las Vegas and secure the two used in Tucson.

I am no longer as troubled by all the partisan sniping. The volume and intensity of the attacks have dissipated somewhat on both sides. (There are, of course, some outliers but we'll leave them to other diarists.) We  now have safe box seats for what might be the finale. I believe that if Senator Clinton does well on March 4th (this is looking somewhat less likely) she may retain the opportunity to take her candidacy all the way to the convention.
Here is the thinking:

The Pentagon has lost the Iraq War but it seems they are fighting a focused PR War. It is Iran and Al Qaeda now at almost every turn. Our soldiers are blown up by Iranian weapons and the killers are almost exclusively Al Qaeda. The BBC reports on one helicopters attack in recent Operation Arrowhead Ripper ( how scary!) where the US claimed a victory over Al Qaeda. It tested the truth of the US report.

The U.S. military is investigating the killings of 17 people in a U.S. helicopter attack north of Baghdad a week ago, after residents of the area complained that the victims were not fighters from the group al-Qaeda in Iraq, as the military originally claimed, but members of a village guard force and ordinary citizens.

A U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Christopher C. Garver, said the June 22 incident in Khalis, about 30 miles north of Baghdad, was under investigation "because of discussions with locals who say it didn't happen as we reported it." The attack occurred in the opening days of Operation Arrowhead Ripper, an offensive against al-Qaeda in Iraq that is centered on Baqubah, about 10 miles southeast of Khalis.
Washington Post

As traumatic and damaging to our nation that many aspects of President Bush's policies and administrative leadership structure have been there has always been his annoying public persona that we had to tolerate. To many of his supporters he was just an everyman who had great leadership skills but to the rest of us he is a disingenuous lightweight hiding behind a smirk. Deepak Chopra has nailed this aspect and others in ways I certainly can't.

President George Bush's determination to be right on Iraq has certainly not faded and his circus of justifications continues as varied as ever. But his burning passion for the Iraqi people and their innate wonderfulness faded hundreds of car bombs ago. His focus now is mainly on number 1 and his legacy (we know Lincoln, Roosevelt and Truman and he's no Lincoln, Roosevelt or Truman).

He's determined to run out the clock for many reasons but the second most important one is that if he leaves now it will be a de facto admission of defeat. I'm  sure he would have preferred the funds for the war to be cut off because the initial chaos that will follow our departure would have made the loss a Democratic Party loss just as he would repeat and repeat that the new strategy was about to turn things around. We won WW II in less time but WE have to understand the Middle East in not like OZ. There many geo-political reasons in addition to his legacy that will truly keep us there.

Let us look at his most recent justification for continuing the war: they will follow us here and test it with what may actually happen if we were to leave Iraq.

Paris Hilton has been sentenced to be jailed on June 5th for 45 days for violation of probation. This is the one reality show every one will want to watch as she can't buy herself out of this one and can't go to anything but the LA county jail! It can be called "The Real Life".

Insurgents battled US and Iraqi forces for about 10 hours in the capital today. This was perhaps the most intense battle in Baghdad since the start of the war and the insurgents refused to disappear into the city as they have in the past when the US forces showed in force with jets and helicopters.
CNN has some great video that is worth the click.

CNN

All that is left between our admitting the obvious and slowly marching back out of Iraq is Mr. Bush's disillusion that victory is still an option. He chooses to be in Jordan for several days probably because Iraq is just not secure enough for him and the size posse he needs to travel with.

Today he is snubbed by Mr. Maliki who chooses to bypass dinner with the leader of the free world just as that leader has traveled around the globe to give him a very public spanking - warning that he not doing a great job in making the decider look good or at least tossing him something he can trump as progress for the next three months or so.

It is a really silly dance as that is playing out as the orchestra gets ready to fold up. There is not good way forward and we can't go back. What  is at stake it the genocide of the Sunni population and the creation of another state that is opposed to our presence and control of the middle east. What a mess!

China has built one of the most sophisticated manufacturing operations in the world in a very short period of time but in the background they have also built a business of selling human organs from executed prisoners. This disgusting practice is happening in a country that has a brutal justice system where you could be executed for theft, corruption or tax evasion. The Chinese military has developed an entire execution and medical system to make sure these human organs can be harvested and sold internationally. It is estimated they are earning millions in this form of trade.

Amnesty International estimated that 3400 people were executed in China in 2004 making up 90% of the world's total executions.

I want one Democratic Party leader to speak up against the whole "we support the troops" mantra the Republicans can get any American mouthing at any time.

Supporting the troops is not just mouthing pablum but actually starts with only judiciously using this blunt instrument of foreign policy in conflicts whose intent allow them to be honored and respected for their actions and not just for the concept of just being our troops.

Literacy is the key to integration into society and its economic system. It is an indicator that we don't track and which may be affecting the performance of our democracy, its society and economy in ways we are not aware of.

According to the National Assesment of Adult Literacy, the US has about 11 million illiterate adult Americans and about 30 million that perform below basic level of prose literacy. An additional 63 million are at the most basic prose literacy level (no more than the most simple and concrete literacy skills). Of the 190 million adult Americans, 11 million are illiterate and 93 million are at or below basic literacy levels. It is shocking for the world's most industrialized nation to post these results without a national discussion and action plan.

The press and the RNC are slowly defining our electtion results as the Democrats organize to define themselves.
There is alot to get done when we take over the leadership but the most important factors are all about setting a course for the nation that is meaninful and achievable.

We were selected to help lead for many reasons but primary among them were Iraq, corruption and mismanagement of the government. It was an election result built on the come: we would deliver win ways the Republicans couldn't and wouldn't.

MSNBC has confirmed that Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) had pleaded guilty in the Abramoff scandal. It is another worthy marker to keep the news media on the hunt of the culture of corruption. The timing will continue to make Ohio blue and keep the pressure on the White House to answer questions related to values which along with the David Kuo book, "Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction," should make for a great next few weeks for us.

I have had it!  For the past few years I have been dealing with a steadly growing number of formally excellent companies as they outsourced their customer service operations to India. My first experience was with Dell but it rapidly spread to companies from a to z now including my bank Wells Fargo, ATT, Amazon and even the maker of the mouse I am now using which was malfunctioning recently, Kensington. Just about all the interactions have followed a familiar and discouraging pattern. The services is generally courtious to a fault but terrible in getting any results. The folks on the other side are either poorly trained or so disempowered that they can't do anything to help. There is no appeal to a supervisor because they hang up at the mention of a supervisor(possibly out of fear) or he is only a slightly more polished and equally weak personage. The cultural gap is apparent from hello and the companies that persue this strategy will be sorry.

The Republicans were besides themselves before the 2003 invasion of Iraq on how sanctions just didn't and couldn't work especially with intrenched tyrants. They continually expressed that using this tool was the last resort of the weak who would in fact be doing nothing about a looming threat. The invasion of Iraq was based in a large part on the necessary corollary that containment does not work.

Iraq was a great case study for we moved ahead based on intelligence that was thin and had little or no factual basis. The greatest danger presupposed at the last moment was the risk of the mushroom cloud rising over a US city as mentioned by both Secretary Rice and President Bush. This threat was the ace that the admninistration used to force the issue just before the election on the Congress.

Where so we stand now realtive to N. Korea?

Reuters is reporting a series of 7 blasts inside the Green Zone.
Because is is night time it is hard to examine the damage or the number of casuelties, if any. The BBC is reporting that there were explosions at an ammunition dump within the Green Zone. This type of attack has been feared for months and we can only hope the damage was limited. If the insurgents can breach the Green Zone security the strategy and tactics will be altered in a dramatic way.
Blasts Rock Central Baghdad.