In answer to 177774 on Bush’s war:  you say that he is willing to prosecute war after war in the Mid-East.  Isn’t it great of him to be so bold with other people’s kids when Bush, himself, was too chicken to go to war when he had a chance?  As has been said over and over, “we don’t see any Bush or Cheney names over in the Mid-East fighting and dying.  -And we never will so long as those two have anything to say about it. 

If this country hasn’t learned a lesson with those two - - -!  But you know what?  There are still millions and millions of people out there that would vote for those two even if the election were held tomorrow.  How naive.  Some would vote for them just because they are Republicans.  The USA’s future doesn’t matter I guess.

Comment #177774, I believe there are polls that answer the question about Bush and his handling of the war or very close.  I believe the polls say that 62% of Americans believe the country is going in the wrong direction.  That would be very close to answering the question “Bush’s handling of the war.  Also, as said in other statement, “wouldn’t that 62% constitute what we would consider to be “main stream Americans.” The other thirty-something percent would be the ones considered to be “out of the main stream,” one would think.

I have never heard so many, who would never do such a thing, speak against Bush & his war. I am used to being critized for being against the government. I am an old hippy. Now I do not need to voice objection. Republicans do it for me. Bush is toast.

So true! I still hope the war was worth it,but it has a bad pretext,one based on cherry picking the evidence and discounting any contrary evidence such that Congress did not see the same evidence as this maladministration.We Democrats want out in a year with provisos .Cheney -Bush have put the country in a bad light abroad. It is so sanguine to maintain that if we fight the terrorists elsewhere , we do not have to fight them here- people there are important also. But we do fight them here as this maladministration also wants to maintain . They it want it both ways.The neo-cons just do not have a rational basis for their warmaking for democracy as democracy is more threatened over there than before!

Did anyone ever hear of Senator Russ Feingold?  You want someone to run for president in 2008 that stands on his own two feet?  Look at Feingold.  He didn’t vote for the Iraq war; was, and still is mostly alone on the senate floor when he talks about the Bush failed policies in the MidEast.

Anyone who says people who are anti-Iraq war are soft on terrorism is soft in the head.  They don’t know the difference between Iraq and Osama Bin Laden.  These people probably still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when Bush declared war on the Iraq people - they believe it just because Bush said so.  Of course his statements leading up to the Iraq war were all proved to be lies.  And, most importantly, he has never admitted to lying.  Furthermore, he has never admitted to making a mistake.

Just because Bush says something - and Cheney too, for that matter - doesn’t make it gospel.  Of all the leaders this country has ever had, these two are the most blatant liars.  A person would probably win more money on betting against a Bush story than betting on a Bush story.  That statement holds for Cheney as well.  I don’t think they know the difference between a lie and the truth.  (Its a good thing Bush can read - barely - or he wouldn’t be able to make a speech.)

How true!  So much for the morals of this maladministration . One longs for Monica-gate when we had a caring,competent administration.See ‘The Natural” and “The Survivor” for evidence thereof.

“Blazintommyd” is some kind of fake “independent voter” troll. He tries to sound like an indy by complaining of the single-party Republican/Democrat monolith, but if you read his other stuff, he thinks we have a one-party government that is AGAINST ISRAEL.

Can he be unaware that the US House of Representatives voted 410 to 8 to BLESS Israel’s recent VICIOUS DESTRUCTION of the ENTIRE COUNTRY OF LEBANON?

Can “Blazintommyd” really not know how totally Israel controls our Pentagon and our foreign policy? I doubt it. He’s a troll, a poser.

Thus, he makes the breathtaking claim: “anti-Judaics provide the block which makes opposition to the war 50% or more...”

TRANSLATION: “The people who aren’t anti-Semites love the war!”

Tommy: we’re ONTO YOU.

There is no need to ask the question, “isn’t that the “mainstream” position?”.  It is a fact, that is the mainstream position, don’t give Rove and Co. an opening. If you ask the questions they will impose their answers, right or wrong and always biased.

Running scared, like bugs when the rock has been turned over, the republicans are truely cranking up the rhetoric. Whats the bet we see more “terrorist” attacks before november.
I wonder if BinLadin has payed his $10 to the republicans for membership, because he must truly love the neocons for pushing so many into his political camp, two sides of the same coin, AKA The Carlyle Group.
The bushies couldn’t find truth if it was written in the Bible, but oh wait they’re not looking, it’s just the morons that vote for them that think there is some reality to this racism.

>>>> And every anchorperson, pundit and squawking head seeking to suggest otherwise is either inexcusably ignorant or purposely lying. <<<<

Lying, what every right winger does best.  But everyone lies, right? Yes, but only a right winger will continue to lie when a ton of contradictory evidence exists.

Old terms like “appeasement” and “Stalinist” have been brandished to insinuate that anyone who dares to dissent from the failed policies adopted by Joe Lieberman and the Bush administration is at best a fool and at worst a traitor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- Herman Goering during the Nuremburg Trials:

“Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You’d *think* after 60+ years, Americans would know they’re being subjected to an old Nazi tactic beating the people into submission.

I was dismayed to see that still *SO MANY* Connecticut voters still voted for Lieberman after his blatant show of being a Bush-sympathizer.

Ned Lamont shoud’ve won with a double-digit landslide!

Aside from the reich-wing Kool-aid drinkers, there are still *WAY* too many Americans that are still too slow to change of any kind---even if it hurts them on all levels of their personal lives.

And then we ask ourselves, how can well-educated, intelligent Jews in Nazi-Germany have allowed themselves to be stuffed into trains heading for death-camps while outnumbering the Nazi soldiers 100’s to one?

I guess it’s human nature to want to stick to what we know, rather than to observe and react on that which is good for us, as many Connecticut voters showed us just 5 days ago.

When will America finally wake up? And why is it taking so damned long??

Another window into what the Democratic-republican single party monolith is all about - -i.e., the status quo -e.g., come on you guys, you’ve been in here long enough; you’re giving all the tax payer loot to your guys now it’s our turn to give some to Our guys otherwise we’re both going to be sorry if a second party ever emerges. We’re not young like we used to be and all the youngsters we have here ready to take over the reins have no foundation only campaign slogans.

It’s real simple, if you like the status quo then you ought to vote republican because they do it better; and if you don’t like the status quo (like I don’t) then I see no evidence that the Democratics have any ability to deliver anything else than ‘we can do it too’ as struggling wanna bes

And that’s what the numbers in the provided show

(1) anti-Judaics provide the block which makes opposition to the war 50% or more (no matter whether it’s legal or not neither side of the hyphen cares) and

2) the Democartics are just doing their old Whistlin’ Dixie “whatever it is I’m against it - I commenced it but I’m against it” (Groucho’s tune from “Horse Feathers” so you know it’s been going on at least that long)

I never liked Lieberman, I’m a Jew and it’s Saturday afternoon, big deal.

Oh no one of those uppity disobedient Jews. Shouldn’t we be worshipping him? No, not yet, best crucify him first and praise him later.

I’m sorry Joe Garcia, I just can’t hang with the idea that Lamont supporters are “ultra-left” simply because the voted against Lieberman.  Lamont has clearly outlined his plan to detach from Iraq and use the resources that are currently being poured into the sand and into the pockets of Halliburton and Bechtel (among others) for improving Homeland Security.  I don’t see what is “ultra-left” about that idea.

Clintonism was a winning ticket, but that was in response to 12 years of Reagan/Bush.  Those years proved to be critical for the question “why do they hate us”.  The ramifications of Reagan/Bush meddling and weapons sales - and choosing sides only to change sides later - and arming both sides of Islam v Islam conflicts - and arming and training what are now called “Islamo-fascists” have never really been assessed by our media or politicians.  They basically blew off BCCI and the Iraqgate story just as they protected the Republicans with the October Surprise, the secret sales of weapons to Iran, Iran/Contra and the Contra cocaine scandal.

You just have to separate the Iraq blunder with the war on terrorism.  Bush/Cheney have worked hard to conjoin the two and it’s working to all of our detriment.  Look how Bush called Iran part of the “axis of evil” and then completely turned his back on supporting a moderate, democratic movement in Iran that was subsequently voted out because of justified fear of an American attack. Now Iran knows that having a nuke makes the country stronger.  Look how Bush ignored peace options supplied by South Korea’s president and blew off an opportunity for detente with North Korea.  Look how Bush is pouring weapons into Pakistan even after discovering that the major proliferation of rogue nukes came from Pakistan and that Pakistan is the home of Taliban.  Bush broke the nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty by selling nuclear material to India.  Now that’s smart - feed weapons to India and Pakistan who are basically at war with each other.  There is more to this foreign policy than Iraq, and it is all wrong because of obtuse bluster.

Now look at all those Bush blunders and realize that Joe Lieberman supported him all the way.  If you don’t see why he has to go, then I guess I’m “ultra-left” in your eyes.  I believe that our presence in the ME continues to stick a finger in the eye of progress.  I also believe that we could be using that 5 billion a month for far better purpose.  The Bush administration tried to defund a program to sniff out liquid weapons in airports… how wrong can one Republican administration be before a Democrat stops supporting it?

If aanything the war in Iraq, sold on lies and fear, and now the Bush administration green-lighting Israel to level Lebanon, has caused a furor in the Arab world that will be damned near impossible to quell and it’s for damned sure that no one named Bush can quell it.

Americans, and westerners in general, are in far more danger today than we have ever been, thanks to the Bush administration. They walked right into a trap that was set for them, proving to the entire Muslim world that Osama’s rantings about the crusading west are true.

At 57 years of age, I will not live to see my country trusted or respected again, even by our allies of old. I am deeply saddened by that, among many other things.

Bush likes to say that the terrorist want to take away our freedoms and that they hate Democracy. That is classic projection if I have ever heard it. Terrorists have no way of taking away our freedoms and who cares if they hate Democracy. Bush, Cheney and the NeoCon whackjobs can take away our freedoms and everything they have done so far, makes me know that it is them who hate Democracy.

Wha did ya expect?  That, just because Lamont won, the Republicans would roll over and let it stand as a signal that people are getting sick of their “spin” that everything’s OK in Iraq or that the economy is fine or that national debt is a healthy thing?  Come on, get over it.  The Republicans, and many converted conservatives, have a real need to protect the power base they’ve built, at any cost.  They will fight, spin, lie, swiftboat and smear anyone who stands in their way ... because it’s the only way they can stay in power.  So get over being surprised.  In fact, stop acting so shocked and disappointed that they will use these slimy tactics to convince people that only George Bush and Dick Cheney and Rumsford care about America and are only about protecting us.  If only the Democrats would stop being so afraid of their shadows and come out and say what everybody knows to be true, anticipating that the Republicans will attack them and attack hard to keep their power base, then and only then will the Democrats make any gains.  Playing it safe and pretending to be nice and being objective and well-balanced just doesn’t cut it in the face of a swiftboating.  Look at what happened to McCain, one of their own.  In fact, if Democrats would understand that the Republicans have mastered one technique and use it very well: It is called “first strike.” They frame the argument and then the Democrats have to respond to it. If only some smart Democrat had come forward, immediately, and said, “Expect this to happen, expect this type of campaign from the Republicans,” they might have taken the “first strike” capability away from the Republicans. And, by doing this, they might have begun to show how the Republicans are bending events to remain in power.  By the way, neither the fundamentalist Christians nor the people who voted for George Bush were ever “main stream”; they represented, in the first place, only a fraction of the voters, and, in the second place, slightly less than half the voters.  So it is a lie to say that Bush’s position is “main stream.”

thankyou, joe conason. it’s exhilerating when one change in power in our democratic party embraces us all, is so encouraging. and promising. i need to hear al gore. only his fury speaks for me and is just, responsible, and i believe he represents change, correct direction for america, for realistic democracy.

we can not afford to support anyone pacifying unjust wars, unsubstantiated elections or ignoring all that’s before us clearly having changed our upholding our constitution and our bill of rights, civil rights. corruption of our federal government and media collusion can only make us all the more vigilant, demand changes now. thank you.

“Evidently, the neoconservatives hope to escape responsibility for their debacle by complaining that the rest of us lack sufficient zeal. So they now pretend that Democrats and progressives, who overwhelmingly supported the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban and still do, want to abandon that effort. This is another partisan lie .  .  .  “

Very well put!  This should be the subject of a blizzard of letters to every opinion page editor and every public official in the country. 

The point so often ignored is that there were no “terrorists” in Iraq until Rumsfeld liberated the arms storage facilities, left them unguarded and then willfully permitted the systematic looting of both Iraq and the US treasury by contractors and political hacks.

They answer that it’s better to fight the “terrorists” in Iraq than here, which is to say that the American military was used as bait!

Terrorism, More on Lieberman, Congress stays in GOP control,
Pollster John Zogby was in the field from Tuesday to Thursday night polling Democrats. Surprise, surprise he discovered Dems are againist the war. His numbers would not hold if likely voters were polled after the thwarting of yesterday’s terrorist attack. I agree with President Bush’s words that “Islamic Fascists” want to attack Democracy. However, I disagree with President Bush’s rationale as to why “Islamic Fascists” exists.
In my view this phenomenon is a result of the United States attempting to “impose” American values on Islamic nations; it should made clear this is not our objective.
However, we must make it clear we have a “no tolerance terrorist policy”. If a country harbors terrorists we will destroy outposts, training facilities, and members, since they pose an immediate threat to our national safety and that of our allies.
MORE ON LIEBERMAN
The ultra-leftist, “bloggerphiles” and Moveon.org have been patting themselves on the back for the defeat of Joe Lieberman. The Democratic Alliance funded by billionaire George Soros and other high rollers are probably popping champagne corks. They also targeted Lieberman for defeat.
The Alliance is using the same tactics as what some Democrats dubbed the “Right-wing political Industry”. Some of the groups making up these right wing extremists were responsible for Bill Clinton’s impeachment.
There you have it. The extremes of both political parties are organizing wing nuts. Democrats have a winning game plan it’s called “Clintonism”. Its message and ideology elected Democrats; instead, these ultra left-wingers want to initiate debate on divisive social issues playing into the strategy that has worked so well for the radical right.
Moreover, Bill Clinton possesses two of the most important attributes in politics today: Being human and how to deliver a sound bite. Today’s elected officials and candidates deliver answers to questions placing TV producers and audiences into a state of lethargic inertness. It’s a fifteen to thirty second sound bite, remember. Leave your screeds to “plans and position papers” no one reads.
With regard to the Lieberman’s loss, TNR’s Tom Edsall offers an excellent analysis of what Lamont’s victory means for 2008 and how elite voters in Democratic primaries cause General Election defeats. Edsall offers a down and dirty analysis of Connecticut primary voters. Lamont voters were better educated and had higher incomes (more likely to have their kids in private schools). These liberal elites control the Democratic primary process, not only in Connecticut, but nationally.
Lieberman voters, on the other hand, live in cities, are renters, blue collar and service workers and those receiving social security. The demographics show the likely to winner of November’s General Election.
Yesterday’s foiling of the terror attack will help candidates who are perceived to be tough on terrorism and national security. These candidates tend to be Republican, but also include Lieberman. The quashing of this terror attack will be exploited by Karl Rove to illustrate Democrats are “loosey-goosey” on terrorism and national security.
A May 10 NYT/CBS News poll showed voters preferred Republicans over Democrats on fighting terrorism 40-35 percent. A more recent (7-14) AP poll found voters not thrilled with the way Republicans are handling terrorism 40-35 percent. Yet when they were asked about the Democratic approach 63 percent were negative.
Yesterday’s quelling of the attempted terror attack is going to take Democrats off its “6 in 06” game plan. Voters are not very interested in the economy, education, health care and social security when they fear for the nation’s safety.
What does this mean for 2008? Those Democrats who are seeking the nomination are already moving to the ultra-left. Wesley Clark and John Edwards have agreed to stump for Lamont.
A really bad move for Edwards who should remain focused on poverty. Edwards’ message should be, more than forty years after Michael Harrington wrote “The Other America” and Robert Kennedy showed us the abject poverty that existed in places like Appalachia. Real destitution—places where there is no education; no health care, malnutrition and most important no hope—still exist in America.
My advice for Democratic 2008 hopefuls: Stay out of Connecticut until after November.
My musing leads to some queries. Since the ultra-left targeted Joe Lieberman, a Scoop Jackson “Internationalist” Democrat, will these groups be targeting the 81 Democratic members of Congress, and those 34 Democratic Senators up for re-election this year, who voted for the Iraq Resolution? Or is this “politics of personal destruction” only to be employed against select Democrats, who, for example, may be members of the Democratic Leadership Council responsible for spreading the message of “Clintonism” and winning elections.
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w060807&s=edsall081006
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-zogby/new-zogby-pol l-reveals-th_b_27064.html
http://garart.squarespace.com

We should be working now to make sure every vote will be counted in November. Each of us who can and is willing to do so should be contacting our local election and political party officials and doing whatever we can to HAVE EVERY VOTE COUNTED in the coming election!

The ONLY way the Neocons can win in November is by disenfranchising legal voters ... AND they WILL do it again if we let them!

Being strong on National Security means telling it straight to the American people.  This is supposed to be an open Demacracy, not a secret cabal ran by Draft Dodging simpletons with an ax to grind and investments to make. These Reich-wingers make me sick.  How can any working stiff possibly vote for a Republican right now?  How far can the people get pushed; I guess that’s what it comes down to.

The Republicans are fighting for their political lives.  If the truly patriotic party, da Dems, assume control of the Senate and the committess that go with it, then we shall have the investigations into the lying, deceit, malfeasance, ineptitude, arrogance, disregard, and everything else these morons did.  Never have so many surrendered their ideals to a group totally bereft of any sense of equality.  This gang wants our country for their personal gain.  If Bush, Cheney, Rice, Gonzales, and Rove are religious people then I’m the King of England. We need to send a message to them.  Frist is a phony, Hastert is a bag of wind, and they need to be sent home.

“To be “strong on national security” does not mean supporting the misconceived and incompetently executed policies of the Bush administration. American security in years to come will depend on undoing this government’s grave mistakes, which have weakened this country’s military posture and undermined support for us around the world.”

You hit the nail right on the head, Mr. Conason, and Democrats need to start hammering that point home every chance they get.  They should also point out that it wasn’t our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan that foiled the “bottle bomber” plot but good old-fashioned POLICE WORK by the UK.  (And, oh, by the way, the plot originated in PAKISTAN, not Iraq or Afghanistan, Mr. Bush and Mr. Lieberman, so “fighting them over there” didn’t do one damn bit of good, did it?!?!)

It absolutely infuriates me that the Republicans are gleefully latching on to the UK terror plot as yet another way to boost their sagging poll numbers by tarring the Democrats as weak on national security.  If Americans fall for their completely lame argument that extremist Democrats are taking over the party and that we’d make the country completely vulnerable to terrorist attacks, then they DESERVE the fascist regime that George Bush has created.

This is all true.  As usual, the same right wing pundits we all know and detest at the exact same time got their talking points memo from the RNC to say that the sky was falling on the Democrats and America because Joe Lieberman didn’t win.  These are the same ones who in 1994 were calling for term limits as a matter of high conservative principle, which since getting power they never bother to mention. The conservatives will say or politisize anything to keep power and continue their ongoing extortion racket of a government.

We see polls about Bush’s support for his handling of the war in Iraq.  We don’t see polls about Bush’s strategy for his “war on terror.”

Bush’s strategy is to replace every government in the Middle East with a democracy. Bush is willing,if necessary,to prosecute consecutive wars for decades to accomplish that goal.

Bush ignores that the cost in lives and money to do that would be far worse than anything terrorists could do to us if we left the doors wide open.  Bush ignores the terrorism that his wars would spawn.  All this because Bush believes that after 100 years the future residents of the Middle East will no longer want to attack us because they’ll be so greatful for the democracy they got after America bombed their theocracy supporting great-grandparents. Then, according to Bush, America will win the “war on terrorism.”

I’d like to see a poll on support for Bush’s approach to his “war on terrorism.” I’d like to see the angry E-mail the mainstream media is about to get from the Internet left contain a request for such a poll. I’d like to see the media disclose that they are receiving demands for this poll. We could see which side represented the “extremists.”

I don’t think such a poll would ever be taken though.  Bush’s approach to the “war on terrorism” is so far out beyond the boundaries of reason that the clerks at polling outfits would refuse to call people up and ask them an embarrassing question like that.

If you like my idea, would you pass it on?

The day after the primary, Cheney pointedly termed Lieberman’s defeat a “purge”—hoping, I suppose, to make disenchanted Democrats sound like hard-line Communist Party hacks.