I'm sure this will be one of many Iraq War Moratorium diaries throughout the day, and it certainly won't be the most eloquent or the most meaningful, but I thought I'd share our little statement with you and invite you to share your own plan with us.

kainah and I bought the foam board several weeks ago in anticipation.  We'd done this 'decoration' of my front porch back in the fall of 2000 following the SCOTUS decision to hand the country over to George Walker Bush.  Those signs came down after a few days, and on January 20, 2001 were replaced by black "mourning bows" tied around the columns, and those remained in place for the next 4 years.

I left the choice of message up to kainah and while I cooked dinner, she laid them out and began to color them in.  Once they were finished we went outside to scope it out.

I’ve worked for state government in the department of transportation as a designer pretty much ever since I got out of technical school. I left for a few years and went to a private consultant for better money but went back to the state about a year ago for the better benefits. And, in the interim, West Virginia elected this joke of a governor, Joe Manchin (who, yes, unfortunately, is a Democrat) who seems to think privatization – and, no doubt, the accompanying corruption – is the answer to all the world’s problems.

So this morning, as I headed into work in my "I (heart) civil liberties" t-shirt, I was approached by a guy handing out flyers for the UE Local 170 "West Virginia’s Public Worker’s Union."

Well, only one occupier, but it still manages to call attention to Ms. Capito's occupation of Bush's pocket.

Capito has a way with words.  That smarmy republican way of speaking that hits all the right notes, but never says anything that might upset the donors, the WH, or the monied interests within her district.  I can't count the number of times she's said she doesn't agree with the WH only to watch her vote whichever way the WH directs.  

Looks as if a few of her constituents are getting more than a little tired of it.

Will all the Wise Men of Washington please just put a sock in it?  Seriously, this is the best and brightest this country has to offer?  

I think perhaps the most significant thing you've done is to set an example for us, that five Democrats and five Republicans sat and reasoned together about what we should do in Iraq to succeed," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

The most significant thing, Joe?  Don't you mean the thing that most neatly falls into your own warped viewpoint on what is wrong with the rest of us?  

Watching the Republicans flail about, pointing fingers and placing blame for their loss has been most amusing, so the discovery of another "blame the architect" article in the NY Times, even though it has an Ad Nags shared byline, was too irresistible to pass up.

It starts out with the standard:

Republicans on Capitol Hill said anger ran deep over Mr. Bush's decision to announce the ouster of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld one day after the election instead of weeks before, when some say it could have kept the Senate in their party's hands and limited Democratic gains in the House.

And then goes on to say they're also miffed about Rove's failing to heed their warnings that Iraq was hurting their campaigns.

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Oh my.  WaPo says they're "agitating", "grumbling", and speaking anonymously.  They're saying Denny is in "jeopardy" win or lose.

said a Republican lobbyist with close ties to House GOP leaders. "I don't think he can stand for speaker, not the way things are going."

Maybe a nice poll would make them feel better.

A recent anonymous poll of GOP insiders in National Journal magazine, closely read by Washington leaders, contained discouraging results for both Boehner and Hastert. The poll of 70 GOP activists, strategists and lobbyists found only 14 percent supporting Hastert returning as speaker and just 26 percent preferring Boehner.

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I'm constantly amazed by these people.  6 years of one public relations campaign after another, bouncing back and forth between photo-ops and poll tested phrases, costumes and props, painted backdrops and mission accomplished.  I was never big on carnival rides and I was tired of this one in the spring of 2001.

What's amazed me today?  Karen Hughes in all her PR glory, that's what.

Think Progress has gotten hold of a leaked memo  (pdf) titled, get this, Thinking Bigger, and it details her "plan" for Iraq.  A sample below...

Mike Callaghan called for Hastert's resignation.

Shelley Moore Capito, running for her 4th term, was the third member of the Page Board and this constituent is wondering why she was kept out of the loop along with Kildee, the lone Democrat on the board.  Capito has made an effort to be close to the House leadership while maintaining the false veneer of independence when it suits her political needs.  Did the leadership not trust her, or were they afraid she might actually do something and upset the apple cart?

This constituent would like to know how far Capito is willing to go in order to maintain the GOP's dream of a "permanent Republican majority".  As a member of the powerful Rules Committee Capito has helped to keep roughly half of her constituents from having any voice in the House, and now we're told that she herself has been kept at arms length over a very serious matter.

While I understand the GOP rhetoric about withdrawing from Iraq equalling "surrender to the terrorists" is completely political, what I find simply amazing is that by inference their position means that we can never talk openly about withdrawing.  If the mere mention of a possible US withdrawal means that even one terrorist is 'emboldened', the US has literally positioned itself to stay permanently, or to withdraw in secret, which isn't possible if we can't even broach the subject.

There's a lot of talk about the GOP advocating "more of the same" and that they're committing us to another 3 years (minimum) of occupation, both of which frame it nicely, but the "3 years, minimum" has a much greater impact, in my opinion.  It defines, in a sense, a timetable, and it's a GOP approved timetable.

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Apparently it's missing.  Skipped town.  Gone walkin'.

POOF  

It's time for the White House to go on offense and "get our mojo back." Josh Bolten said Sunday in his first interview since taking over as the president's chief of staff.

Bolten made no promises of pulling up President Bush's all-time low approval ratings, but he said he and Bush have decided they want to be more open with the media and the public.

 

The Decider, it seems, has been troll-rated.  

I'm so touched that after 5 and half years they think it's time to be "open" with the public AND the media, and it's only taken the fear of losing congress to get there.  I do so like the fact that THEY are the ones that are AFRAID now, don't you?

The Charleston Gazette reports this morning that the National Legal and Policy Center has received more than a million from Scaife & Scaife-related foundations over the last decade.  

A Pittsburgh-area family that frequently funds conservative organizations has mostly funded a group accusing a West Virginia congressman of creating a nonprofit group for his own political gain.

The National Legal and Policy Center, founded in 1991 and based in Falls Church, Va., has received millions since 1995 from three Scaife family foundations, according to Media Transparency, a Web site that researches conservative organizations.

The center turned over to the Justice Department a more than 500-page report on Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., and his relationship with the Vandalia Heritage Foundation. The center has refused to release the report publicly, saying some items it contains may not be accurate.

Yes, that's right.  You've just been exposed to real journalism.  Satisfying, wasn't it?

This is pretty interesting.  

Three months after leaving the Republican Party, South Charleston Mayor Richie Robb filed as a Democrat on Friday for a chance to challenge U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito in the state's 2nd Congressional District.

Robb, a former GOP presidential elector and gubernatorial candidate, said he planned to target lobbyists and their financial interests in his campaign. Toward that end, the eight-term mayor said he also plans to raise funds by seeking $25 from 2,500 donors.

"Congress, I believe, is dominated by financial interests," Robb said Friday evening. "People will say, aren't special interests all of us? I say, not necessarily. ... Some of the special interests are acting contrary to the public good."

The war in Iraq also might prove to be an issue in the race. Robb has said that his opposition to the war helped prompt him to leave the GOP in October. Capito, the state's sole Republican in Congress, is a staunch ally of President Bush.

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Just saw this at DU and it explains how Rove, etc. got the info on Plame, and explains why the Air Force One phone records were subpoenaed.

Transcript on the flip...